Miss you

I didn’t know
I’d been longing.
You are harder to reach than the others.
Needs I left behind, not once thinking to say goodbye.

Do you remember? the Pyrex dish
of pepper fish stew? that broke against his head?
—he did repay her.

In that place—
above the bridge.
And now, my brow still feels it
The touch of you, breathing.

I am a constant,
pleading for your return.
To that stool, parting comb in hand,
Hoping that you will embrace me
That you will cup my head into your lap and let me whisper—
Please,
keep me.

———

Release

‘May you be always…’
I am sending you praise—
in love, and honour, and,
all the things I have
never known.
How to say

‘If you must live, love,’
But the terror.

Instead, since I must be, make me bodiless.

With your name, I spell out descent,
The sense of never needing
a breath.
But I promise I will remember
to return
to the cage where you leave me

Incorporeal in my devotion—
I will always be here
to release you.

———

Poetry: Ẹniọlá Ànúolúwapọ́ Ṣóyẹmí
Image: Tif Stoate Pixabay modified