The photograph

[Comfort]

I miss you there
Where your smile was frozen
Before I had to taste your absence
Before each substance…
I miss you here
I miss you before pupils had to learn to accept you were past tense

I stare at your picture hoping you’d jump out saying it was all a prank
I stare till my mind goes blank

I miss you there
I miss you bare, though you tried to cloth your anger
I miss your care, though times it was never fair
I miss you rare, when work took you far and I waited till stars fully shined just to hear your car
You’re finally here

I envy how the picture gets to hold you
How it gets to know you with every frame
With every pixel
Through every lens.
You truly were, picture perfect

I miss you where?
I miss you here, right here!
Right here, not there with the Angels!
They don’t know you here! They don’t know you till prayers pulled them close
They don’t know you mad, they don’t know you glad
They don’t know you embarrassed, they don’t know you!!!
So why, why do they get to have you there?

I miss you here,
Right here, where your photograph stays silent,
Frozen in a frame that knows you only in stillness.
But I knew you in motion,
In every breath, every glance, every heartbeat.

And yet, this picture holds you now—
More than my arms ever could.
But it’s still just a shadow,
A whisper of you.

I miss you here.

[Susan Katz]

Touching – moving – a heartbeat of emotion and truth and loss.  You do a fine job with rhyme and slant rhyme but perhaps, you might want to tone it down a bit as it, in a couple of places in the poem, became more prominent than the words (the feelings) themself.

You have a poetic “voice” – a style of writing that, I think, is recognizable.  I believe that is what a poet strives to accomplish – his/her own voice – a “sound” that resonates off the page.

It is a pleasure reading your poetry – and was a wonderful way to start my frigid Sunday morning.  I thank you for trusting me to read and comment on your work.  – Susan

[Author]

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