YOU COULD BE MISSED

YOU COULD BE MISSED

You could be missed.

Afterwards, she will speak

more than these centuries

of wedlock and its silence,

but you won't hear.

The words will come slow

at first,through her eyes bleeding,

resonantly, like dull hammers

where your eardrum should be;

you won't hear, I promise.

But she will speak, repeatedly,

will try to explain, forgive.

The time could come when

she will answer all her own

questions about love and things.

And, if she's honest,

you will be deeply missed.

But you shall never know.

by my late husband. Alex-- May 1972

THE CHILD

I see the child

in the garden, her head

filled with the wind,

and her eyes in the summer of children

bright as the sun;

I hear her laugh

in the garden, her mind

swallowed in dreams,

and her mouth in the learning of children

full of the sun.

I watch her dance

in the garden, her face

determined and lent,

and her limbs like the gallows of children

crossed in the sun

I love the child

in the garden, a voice

that I once knew,

and remember the growing of children

lost in the sun.

by my late husband ALEX written in the 70's