Traces

You left (behind)

             bleeding constellations

             dazzling starbursts, a dying sky.

Left me dancing, dizzy

you disappeared

into the night.

Traces of you:

steps that glide, a rolling swagger;

dark eyes aglow

With secrets of the fading dusk.

These traces of you are

murmuring memories and wistful what-ifs

a clinging morning mist;

look! the corner—your shadow disappears.

I’m suddenly stumbling

twisting, grasping, reaching for you—I turn

only to find myself alone in the night

from a trick of the moon.

Forget these lingering traces of you!

the shape of your name, so long!

glimmers of joy, goodbye!

our sky slips away

as dawn arrives.

Goodbye…

…

I can’t

forget

traces of you

             they haunt me in phantom jokes you whisper

             they pierce me in our singer’s crooning voice

             they compel me to pick up my pen as I lie sleepless

and write of these lingering traces of you.