Open Letter to a Lost Love

Space, the final frontier, between us –

An abyss of falling stars, with wishes

Unbidden and ungranted. Our tongues hiss

At the hurt, shapeless and undefined,

Like the nucleus in an amoeba of sorrow.

Love shouldn’t have to hurt so hard, so

What was that thing that broke our hearts,

Ripe with passion and charm, joy and pleasure,

The smoldering embers of a matchstick

Next to an old gas stove with a failed pilot light –

Waiting to explode? And then like fools,

We would attempt to rebuild the sepia-toned nostalgia

Paying no heed to the reality of jagged edges

That cast this saga into tomes of memory…

Yet fondly now, here I sit, missing what was good,

When the alchemy of our elixir bubbled and churned

Into something sweet, and lovely, and desirable.

Alas, the universe still expands – never contracts –

And we are hurtling headlong, in different directions.

But I think of you, and I savor the pain,

Despite knowing that there shall be no return,

Because of all the ports of call along my journey,

You were one who made me better, and

For that I am grateful.