Apparently, a poem still sometimes falls out of me. What can I say? Early December has been rough.

I’m not going to record this piece right now, but I’ll have the audio version on (probably) the next poetry album – which is in progress, if not coming together as quickly as I want it to. I should start recording in the next week or so, so I guess maybe early 2017 if my attention span holds.

I Should Have Noticed Then

I should have noticed then

That it was not age that had conquered you

That the slump of your shoulders was a sign

That your need to be near was a sign

I should have realized sooner

That getting older and being crushed

By the weight of time are not the same.

That things sometimes enter our hearts slowly,

With infinite care,

And don’t leave even once they’ve left a scar.

I should have known all along

That there is no set frame of reference,

No guarantee that we still have time,

But I just kept thinking ‘not yet’ and ‘too soon’

Like thinking them could make mockery

Of all the signs that I couldn’t see for what they were

When it mattered,

And couldn’t write off when the bigger picture

fell around me like a black veil

removing distractions from view

until all I could see were the little things

That I should have noticed then.

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