After You Were Gone

after you were gone your presence manacled my soul and lingered long on the streets of my conscience caught on desolate fields of loneliness silence and tears remembered the beauty you created your absence was felt on the breast of my memory and the air I breathed jammed at its doorways and death looked me in the face and my eyes wept for your return in the hearth of desires your enchantment remained a lingering shadow in every whisper on steep slopes of hope and I cried now every lip prays for the resurrection of our souls and at the village square steps wait to see us walk our chiefly walk again