-- Missing Someone --

John Herlihy

You never know how much you will miss someone,

Until they are gone and you begin to miss them.

Goodbyes offer up in compensation sweet sorrow,

Incomparable to how you miss someone tomorrow.

So much did pass between us of what had been,

Only to now be met by the emptiness of where and when.

I thought your absence but an interlude of fragile notes,

Instead your absence but a silence of unspoken quotes.

Indeed, your absence more a presence as if still there;

Wherever I may see, wherever I go, you are everywhere.

Then the shadows emerge, the light dissipates, you are gone;

Missing becomes a memory sounding as a melancholy horn.

You never know how much you will end up missing someone,

Until you see the face of your beloved in everyone, anyone.

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(c) John Herlihy 4 August 2019