Absences

Things I will miss, as much as those

who have taken them down, away

with them, in going, leaving

     absences:

the string of paper birds

the photocopy of a freckled

     Pippi Longstocking flipping pancakes

the lazy long-handled butterfly net

the Gorey alphabet poster

the pyramid of Raisin Bran boxes

     defying gravity

          until the very last moment of rise

              fails

                   falters

                       falls,

               into that long forever-after of aching

                     to rise again,

              the settling drift

                  of phantom pain.

—Christie