YOU
WERE HERE
As
I sit in those moments of quiet,
When
sadness invades me,
I
know that yesterday,
You
were here.
Now
you are away from us,
Not
knowing your future,
Or
when you'll come home, but yesterday,
You
were here.
It
has now been a week,
A
week since you last were in the house,
An
entire week since we carried you away,
To
the place where we did not know your future,
But
just last week,
You
were here.
Another
day passes;
a
week ago, you were still with us,
In
daily reports from the clinic,
They
did not know your future,
But
we could still hope, and,
You
were here.
More
days pass,;
A
week ago you left us,
Your
head cradled in our hands,
Your
spirit gracefully moving upward,
But
for a few hours of that day,
You
were here.
Sadness
invades again,
As
I know that once those hours pass,
I
can no longer look back,
Over
the span of a familiar week's time,
To
find that comforting point when,
You
were here.
More
time will pass;
Sadness
will not so much invade as menace,
And
I will mark the days,
Saying
things like,
"last
month, last summer, last Halloween, last year,"
You
were here.
I
dread that day,
One
year from now,
That
first marking of the time,
That
your body was no longer with us;
Though
we will never forget you,
Your
tangible memory fades,
The
feel of your fur, your head, your back, your weight against us,
The
smell and sounds of you when,
You
were here.
The
emptiness is beginning to fade,
To
change into another reality,
One
with you still playing a part,
But
a role of ethereal presence rather than physical comfort we crave;
Your
memory, your spirit, your essence and counsel,
Dwell
with us, but this feeling is not the same as when,
You
were here.
Author:
Jenine Stanley
Go to more poems