Almost Touching

I can’t believe you’re not in the world anymore. It’s like someone turned off all the lights And the world went home. The party, prematurely cut off— Your face contours etched into my biology. I feel you in every empty space, Every pregnant pause. You are the words I’ve forgotten, The car keys I lost. You are the second before I wake up, My fevered dream. You’re in every atom, every breath— But damn, I still can’t feel you. I want to melt and fade into you. The silence is a violence I challenge with poetry. I throw metaphors Into the void, Hoping the void will answer back In your voice. Death is not the answer— But the truth. Grief is a runaway train Ploughing through fields of wildflowers Where we sat once, Almost touching. I still wait for your hand in the dark. And I never got to say goodbye. And the lights never came back on.