Bereavement

If I could gather the clouds

I'd put them in a box and open it for you

Slowly, like letting the air from a balloon

Watch your hair thrown back

A hundred thousand still connected dandelion puffs

Cast out by a laughing child's breath upon them

While nimbus and cirrus race toward

Home

I would trace the edges of your flesh

By lightning strike, I'd summon the strength to reach out

To caress your skin, glowing beneath the strobe

Of those tiny photographers

Whom you inadvertently modeled for

As the thunder grumbled something about the confines

Before rolling out across our eardrums, whose vibrato tickles slightly

The lobe

Much like when you would whisper

Into mine

If I might collect the stars

I'd put them in an old mason jar and surprise you with it

On one of those nights where you weren't quite sure

If we were crying from laughter or futility

Watch the lights dance in your eyes

Pools of ocean blues, sprinkled with flecks

Of sea foam green and the fiery white specks of

Reflection

I would let them free, once they'd all been named

By you, that when you next gazed upon the expanse

Of night sky, you'd cry out, there's Julius, and Douglas

And they'd still be alive, for that moment, instead of weights heavy

Upon the heart, scars etched deep upon your arms

And I'd remember you for the way you are

Instead of trying to live amongst a world in which

You were.