My sweet Bradley
Take your heart
From your sleeve
And tuck it
Away back in
Your chest saving
And keeping it
Safe for another
It’s difficult to
Unpin hearts from
Sleeves but hearts
On sleeves prompt
The feeding frenzies
Of desperate carnivores
Hunting the weak
Squirrel it away
Keep it safely
And let those
Hungry for anyone
Starve to death
And like a
Lagoon at rest
After a deluge
Long after the
Thunderous storming cacophony
Of unexpected change
Blows on past
Most everything once
Again dips drops
And finally dies
Decomposing down below
At the bottom
Allowing newness to
Float clearly above
And in clarity
Bright things seen
Swimming and shimmering
Darting and dancing
While the past
Settles down at
Long long last
How does a
Dog not hear
The call of
It’s master or
The leaves not
Feel the wind
Or the sand
Not feel the
Incessant pounding surf
Or the daffodil
The chill of
Frost and yet
You suppose I
Am supposed to
Not miss you
When wherever I
Am you are
Except right here
And here and
Yes over there
Sometimes in love
Impossibility does occur
It’s called distance
That might be
Inches or miles
Time or ages
And it promises
Only one thing
To push away
Or draw close
It doesn’t depend
On the where
Or the why
When or how
But the who
Thinking of you
Stirring my coffee
Hearing that tink
Which once angered
Now woefully missing
Even summer knows
That it will
Once again kiss
Fall and winter
Relies on spring
But me now
What I have
Is simply that
Muted sound of
My own spoon
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 