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