THE WORDS I OWN by Michael Shay

THE WORDS I OWN by Michael Shay

Surviving loss with a generosity of spirit has given Michael Shay’s poetry the wings to carry family from his own parents to his children. With a photographer’s eye for how we remain connected to nature, “The Words I Own” offers rejuvenation through the beauty of language. Read and be transformed

 

THIS IS NOT A LOVE POEM

By Michael Shay

This is not a love poem

After 29 years

There are

No new arrivals

And much has changed.

You are not the same person I married

And t5his is not the same poem I would have written

I write differently now

And when you sit so close

The past begins to vanish

And that does not matter

Because all the past creates a now

Where nothing can go on without you

I have been with you

Longer than I have been with myself.

It is a quiet comfort of spaces filled

Lights flashing off in the distance

A reminder of how far we have come

Your beauty has a place here

In the snaphots’ blur

In the succession of hairstyles, smiles

And bright, bright eyes

The stars disappear behind the glow

Of a ¾ moon

Which we need glasses

To see clearly anymore

Close your eyes

And you will not see this poem either

Because it will be forgotten

Among these memories

Dust in the cracks of a solid oak floor