With each chat
Each new secret
I plant seeds
Of possibility that
I water with
Affection and interest
Compassion and kindness
Watching my field
Of acquaintances grow
Into a forest
Of friends amongst
Which I hide
When the world
Eventually frightens me
Because it does
And they do
They always do
Absent of now
My mind freely
Wanders memories hallways
Like a graduate
Returning to school
Peering through windowed
Doors and remembering
This and that
Removed by time
And fresh perspective
Like a cold
Kills the aroma
So do memories
Merely hint passions
Leaving you famished
Sitting alone and
Listening to music
When one of
Our songs plays
And from deep
In my stomach
The sobs bubble
To the surface
Because I know
You don’t remember
These our songs
Because I fear
By now you
Barely remember me
This sky is
One large lounging
Gray tabby sitting
On the Appalachian
Mountains windowsill absorbing
All the sun
Preventing any of
It to warm
Any of us
Shoo cat shoo
Bring us that
Cold winter sunshine
Days are shorter
Like furloughs during
The war time
Winter trees stand
Naked outside my
Window charcoal fingers
Playing puppet shadows
Against cold gray
December skies that
Hover like parents
Over home work
Never really moving
Nary a breeze
All is still
But me seeing
And you breathing
Here beside me
HARLAN DIDRICKSON 