Love Poem: The Missing One--A Love Story
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Written by: John Byrd

The Missing One--A Love Story

The memory 
arrives
colder now.

Spring in 
Phoenix, 
a palace 
of tan grass
beneath 
our feet, 
all of you
that remains. 

The water
and the wind
still dancing
in my mind,
running
furiously
in my speech,
your quietness
appealing 
to every trace
of what I was.

All of this
makes sense,
the way 
anything 
exists at all
makes sense. 
Forgetting you
by degrees,
an impossible
arithmetic.
Keeps 
me up nights, 
wound up and 
scorned
by your presence. 

I search
for you,
your eyes 
touched 
by fire,
by impatience, 
your voice,
trumpet calling
me home,
and I remained.

I search
for you,
but I 
am 
the missing one.