Not Here

Tonight I just want to reprint my edited and finished poem, Not Here. It is the best I can do on this rainy dark night preceding the funeral of one of my dearest friends.

Not Here

Death surrounds me. I know about it, read about it, hear about it.

Today it touched me. Filled me with emptiness and left me here.

All I can think about is not here.

Not here. What an incredibly incomprehensible thing to imagine.

It is everywhere, on my email, in my phone.

Its sweetness lies in my heart.

So rich, so beautiful, so alive!

How can so much leave me so empty?

Flowing over me like the sea, seeping in, engulfing,

Dulling everything except my pain.

Some day this will be as natural as the sun on the lotus.

I will lift my face into the light of my memories and bask in their warmth.

Today, I cannot imagine that.