Tu Me Manques

you are missing from me

clawing at empty space

where our memories should be.

you are missing from me—

like a mute mother tongue, like an

unread story, unexplored territory.

you are missing from me, now

things are mapless, contextless,

compassless.

aching and sick

with it, bitter and sinking

in it, swimming

in the thick of it, where

olive branches turn to ash

a phantom limb steers the ship

with no dry land in sight.