A Year
#11 of Poetry
Today (13APR2022) marks the one year anniversary of my animal companion's passing. I try to not wear my heart on my sleeve often, but I had to just get this out there.
It's been a year since I saw you last.
How has time gone by so fast?
A year to the day,
You were no longer OK.
There hasn't been a day that's gone by
Where I've looked over and expected you by my side.
Your cage, now clean, still sits upon its pedestal
Cold and empty, only a hollow shell.
I told myself I could take another, maybe
A few months at most, I said,
Half a year, we'll see.
A year to the day, your place remains vacant.
The desire impatient, yet oddly complacent.
"Another would do," says a part,
But only a fraction of my heart.
Whoever it is could never be claimant,
At best, even with perfection, they'd be only adjacent.
The only things that's odd, I find,
Is still how fresh you are in my mind.
So I sit here, a year to the day,
Still I wonder, could I have kept death at bay?
My mind is restless, more questions linger on.
I suppose in my solitude I have a job to do
To carry your memories since now you've gone.
And to still say "I love you."