I awoke to find you Gone...

Lying there,
my ears straining for just one sound...
just one small sign of your presence...

but there was none.

I could feel the silence like a viscid web,
entangling my mind and limbs,
threatening to bind me to this spot,
this state, this middle dimension
between what was and what now must be.

If I just lie here and never move,
maybe I can hold myself suspended in time...

Never having to face the emptiness,
Never turning to see the vacant place beside me,
Never feeling the unceasing pain,
Never needing to greet the new day alone.

Better yet,
to fall back into the comforting arms
of perpetual, nepenthean slumber,
lost in the forever dream
of the sweet memories of yesterday...

But, my arrested existence could never bring back yours.
So I rise
and move through my days,
feeling your absence keenly,
like the ever-present phantom ache of a missing limb.