Lisa Suhair Majaj

Lament

I miss you in the cliffs that fall away
in echoes to the mottled, tumbling sea.

I miss you in the sky that presses low,
dark clouds of grief a weighty repartee.

I miss you in the driving of the rain
that chills your hillside gravesite to the bone.
I miss you in the afternoon’s fierce wind,

the light that fades and leaves me here alone.

I miss you in the haunting of the hours,
the days that spark and die without your voice.
I miss you in the midnight and the dawn,

the noontime and the dusk that bring no choice.

I miss you in the spring that bursts and flares,
its colors like an anthem played to grace.
I miss you in brief petals and bright leaves,

the flower that too quickly bends its face.

I miss you in the life we did not live.
I mourn you in the past that could not stay.
I grieve you in a future gone too soon.
I seek you in the spring light gone to gray.