The day you went away 
Something died inside me too 
I thought that with time 
In the pithy wisdom of poets
And cure-alls of self-help books 
In the endless cycle of the days 
That I’d come back to life 
To some semblance of pulsing life 
But I didn’t 
And that’s ok 
Isn’t the end of self the next terminus anyway?

The formidable ego that relentlessly keens 
For fantasies of euphoric times 
Trapped in snow globes 
Frozen for life
Crashing like cannon balls
Into raw hearts that survive 
That part of me died 
But that dead part of me 
Buried somewhere 
In the thick of my atoms that ricochet 
And my lungs that tirelessly inhale
Is now also my quiet side
A stoic, eternal, abiding thing 
Cloaked in 
The resolute infinity
Of ceaseless serenity

In that sepulcher of my being
There is no distraction, no noise 
No daunting end-times tunnels of light 
The lifeless part of me
Is nerveless, unfaltering 
Impervious to everything 
Everything but the little flame 
You left behind when you went away 
Glowing softly just beyond 
The stillest, deadest part of me
For me to gently find my way.