I've known of missing poems before
poems stronger than the suppressing hand
poems more powerful than the invisibility
poems that speak from the realm of the soul
from the place that needs no facade
the place unpalpable where the poem touches
a father's unrenderable gaze
absent from the family photograph
frozen in clenched smile abstraction
hovering somewhere near the unfathomable
a hole where a heart once lay
cached between bone and muscle
a conduit for that which makes life livable
its beat but an echo its rhythm but a spasm of memory
hurt where a friendship once was
its demise never anticipated
its loss never contemplated
it measure infinite
space where a leg ought be
the missing limb but bits of flesh femur blood
soft shrapnel on a once abandoned war ground
the mined soil holding secret its maiming terror
nothing where something ought be
it is said that to which the missing was adjoined
the left behind
mourns its disattached
one sees the shining knee -
the favored other
there is emptiness longing
grief is spoken
and desire
Sojourner Kincaid Rolle
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/a-space-where-a-poem-ought-be/
