Why I Miss You

Why I Miss You

I can’t think of you without remembering

how annoyed I was that you interrupted

the most beautiful magnificent

lightning storm I’d ever seen

You came to my door twenty years ago

and knocked as hard as the night

then harder until I let you in

just because it was raining

You wanted to talk

and I wanted only to be silent

and watch the storm

framed by the picture window above my couch

the electric veins slapping the speechless sky

across its horizontal face

There will be other storms

you promised, and that is all you said

which is why I miss you sometimes

because your love wasn’t violent or selfish

But it wasn’t exciting enough either

to mean then what it would mean now

to someone who knows what happens

when a storm breaks the window

and lets itself in

I couldn’t have guessed then

that in the next twenty years I wouldn’t once

see another lightning storm as beautiful

or magnificent as that one

Or that I’d be waiting

in this unexpected future for you

to knock again on the door

and interrupt everything, and I would let you in

even if it wasn’t raining.

DeMaris Gaunt

4-5-10

Published by demarisgaunt

I currently live in Greenwood, Indiana. I love to listen to music, books on CD, podcasts or NPR as I work in my studio. My favorite artists are Andrew Wyeth and Edward Hopper. I love poetry, but only the good stuff that isn’t so abstract I can’t understand it. Abstraction better lends itself to visual art, I think. Stephen Dunn is my favorite poet. He’s said just about anything that can be said about the inner workings of the heart and mind. My favorite novel is Atonement by Ian McEwan. My all time favorite band is The Cure. I love science, and anything that relates to how the mind works. I don’t believe in the supernatural. If I could meet anyone in the world, it would be Richard Dawkins or Steven Pinker. If you don’t buy my art or read my poetry, buy one of their books. It will enrich if not change your life. My favorite things to do are hiking, kayaking and camping. My favorite food is so common, I’ll keep you in suspense (It starts with a P). I prefer chocolate to vanilla. Green is my favorite color. I have an aversion to planning or scheduling of any kind, and I live for spontaneous adventures! Telephone conversations make me anxious, and I avoid them at almost all cost. I had a happy childhood. I’m having a pretty fantastic adulthood. I have every intention of seeing my 100th birthday, after which I will happily relinquish my guts to the future of medicine. Cheers! ~DeMaris View more posts