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].
