Billowing Overhead

 

Her absence is like the sky, spread over everything. -- C.S. Lewis

It's not your absence I feel,

but your presence, palpable,

still snoring on the sofa

after chemo.

You are not missing

from any moment I breathe.

You exist.

In the painting you bought on a trip to Spain.

The chipped blue mug from your alma mater.

Broadway tickets I found in a drawer.

You are with me.

On the grocery shelf

beside those square orange crackers

you ate by the box.

In the sky,

billowing overhead,

declaring your existence

as someone still loved

on this earth.

--Jacqueline Jules

[Posted for Sue Jackson and all who know this presence in absence].