No Longer At The Old Address (Poetry)

It was a shock to find you’d left —
back my letter came as though bounced
against some distant barricade —
missile-straight and aimed
to sever all connections
with gone away — no known forwarding address

Your name, your street, your town
scribbled through — casually dismissed —
your life continuing elsewhere
and the door I had imagined opening
to sanctuary — retreat from a cold world
will now never welcome me. The link’s undone...

We are separated — this the final cut
and all the might-have-beens from decades gone
linger somewhere on the page returned
unread — and like an orphan in the storm
ask for pity — come to understand
all life’s clouds eventually move on.