Healing, by Nicholas Ryan Sampson

Healing

I don’t remember

any anesthesia

after talking with you

but I woke up

stitched back

together

(2014)

I’ve kept my eyes closed most of these past eighteen years because I find it just as dark

Hope in another form but no fewer letters and I’ve been hoping for these past eight years so I’ll just keep on

Everyday I visit the only writers block I know to hone my words and wit and help them cut deeper into the skin

It must be a wednesday or a friday or any day at all for I am painfully aware of the wo… that consumes me

I get my silence in five minute doses before the plane overhead brings me back to earth

Autumn sneaks in preceding dormancy Leaves take on new beauty with nothing left in them but a fa… Individually insignificant

I feel empty unceasingly until you come along and fill my heart to bursting

I see no joyous rebirth in spring for autumn will bring another death I see no joyous rebirth

The hands of this watch haven’t moved since the last time you did and I’m not sure if I’m ready to hear the ticking

I would write a sweet poem and title it with your name if I loved you at all

I awoke from a deep sleep and knew the reason was to write I love you

I thought I could drink you away but I had to stop being so drunk on you first

I say hello and you say nothing You may hear me you may even think of a response

There is poetry in nature better left to be spoken wordlessly by the breeze

I spend my nights wishing on every star in the sky that you are alive and well