I’m more than merely if – I’m when,
a dirge you sing in metered rhyme,
the sullen muse that moves your pen,
the loss by which you measure time,
a ghost you fail to keep at bay,
a blow that takes you by surprise,
the nagging tug of yesterday,
a slow and absolute demise,
the tributaries on your face,
a reckoning of flesh and bone,
abiding love that’s been displaced,
and lamentations etched in stone;
for all your joy, I’ll send a bill –
if you don’t know me yet, you will.
