My World Reflected in You

In everything I do

I find a part of you

All that I am, 

Have been

 Or will ever be

Is only what

 You have given to me

Into the hall mirror

A furtive glance I but cast

And always there

 I find your dark plaintive eyes

Backward at me looking

In deep reflection

 Upon our lost past

A lifetime spent together

As so slowly 

I loose your corporeal tether

So painfully, so carefully

I wait to hear you

Once again

 By my door

Or your heavy foot-steps

Across the floor

Your room is empty now

Its things laid out

 As best I know how

Still is the pen 

Without your hand

Empty the paper

 By the night-stand

Silent sits the rocking chair

No longer creaking on the boards

And your glasses rest on the dresser

Closed are your books

Where you left them last

After so many weeks

Since you've passed

Little leftover remains

 But tiny specks of dust

Next to them an unfinished list

Of the important things

 You must have missed

Skeans and balls of colored yarn 

Half-unraveled

Tossed willy-nilly

Into the big basket

Your knitting needles still cased

And your bed yet made

The way you left it last

The little night lamp

Remains turned off

My sun has set forever now

 Upon my lonely life

Out now is my guiding light

Begun now is your long journey

Into the dark solitude

Of my unending night

Solitary I yet wait

 For your welcome return

In the schooner of my dreams

So we can talk once again

Of little things unbegun

And life's big projects

 Left unfinished

I now long most only

To see your smile again

And listen to your wisdom

As you hold forth

'Bout the crossed ways of the world

Your favorite subjects

Can bore me no longer

I long only

To laugh and argue

And annoy one another

And then make up

Just once again