I still taste you 
in every sip of liquor
O, how quickly
our past begins to replay
projected on the evening lawn
as the oil lamp burns 
ghostly, beside me

You said so little
like some men will
That stillness was a balm
to my life’s tumult
Your stoic way
and silent eyes
a recurring character
in my diary’s scribbled lines

I don’t do much
but work and walk
and play the records
you left behind
I throw a ball
with the dog, a while

I’m a dog, failing to fetch
your voice, your perspective
Lost in the long grass
of memories worn thin
Too many years gone by
this nostalgia does me in

One night, I touched your arm
said ‘I’m grateful for you’
(the way men aren’t prone to do)
And for a wordless moment
you looked at me
in that endless moment
such tenderness

And then, later 
as I slept
you split...