Yang Chu's Poems #191

Painting by Gilbert Wilson


YANG CHU’S POEMS 191

Something is missing
In my life
Was my feeling.
I didn’t know what was missing.
This bizarre, lonely feeling
Came after I heard a poem
By Lalla sung,
Her clothes were the sky.
I kept wondering what
Was missing from my life.
I didn’t know.
I started gazing about the room
To see if I could find what was missing.
The missing might be right
In front of me, but it wasn’t.
All the chairs were empty.
The missing was not sitting in a chair.
I looked in the closet,
But the missing was not there.
But I had the strong feeling
That this missing
Was present in the room,
But I could not see the missing anywhere.
I feel so intensely the presence
of the missing
That I felt I had a companion.
It was joyous having a companion.
I took a wine bottle out of the rack,
Poured out two glasses of wine.
As we sipped the wine together,
I began to hear
The music of the panpipes.
While listening, I filled again
her emptied glass.


Duane Locke

Posted over on The Houston Literary Review