Grief

You've left this crowd. I search for you in this sea of faces; I look for your face in the face of strangers. Your nose on a newborn in a stroller on Madison. Your eyes on a woman with a latte on Broadway. Your frizzy red hair on that Brooklyn Billboard. I see your smile on every bleak, sleek street. And if I close my eyes for a moment of reprieve, I hear your Queens accent on every City sidewalk. It resonates in my ears. It chews through my eardrums like maggots That want to take me to you. But I refuse. I barely ever knew you; And you've quit this crowd.