And now they’re gone 
those very same raindrops 
packed away I suppose 
like decorations after holiday 
or treasures and trinkets 
collected and lovingly spied
for a while anyway 
until the last of
the salt water smell 
gets washed away or
like tears withheld or
withdrawn or wiped away 
now gone all gone 

I miss seeing 
you before seeing 
it or them
or any other 
for you have 
become my for
and all that 
follows ever eigner
most and evermore 

Raindrops dot windows 
like little clear
ornaments hung on
the limbs of 
trees far away 
or like tears
of far off
buildings boo hooing 
that their cold
facades got wet
but mostly they 
cling holding on
peering in hoping 
that for just 
this once they 
won’t be forgotten 

I know so much
about her and yet
she knows not me 
you squirrel me away 
like some dirty dime
store tawdry paperback stuffed 
under mattress or buried 
between bed and wall 
only ever taken out 
after dark and read
with flashlight in hand 
she is I suppose 
your day and I 
will only be night 

I too used 
to go back 
but when back
only meant forward 
I stopped returning 
like a bird
I do suppose 
stops looking for 
its nest that 
was destroyed by 
storms time to 
start looking at 
other places to 
call home now 
maybe over there 
over there anywhere