TO MY DISAPPEARING FRIEND

You stayed home all weekend

Again

Your mother called

After two weeks of your silence

To ask if you were still alive

You waste all the minutes

Not bound to barest need

Just what do you find

So fascinating about that blank wall

That keeps your attention

For hours at a time?

In your secret cave, your home,

What is it that causes you to mourn

Till your body quivers beyond control

With the gasps of silent tears

That do not wet your eyes or face?

Have you no voice to speak?

Is it language that confounds you?

Can you find no words

To name the thing

That traps you there

Alone and hiding?

Do the worlds

Of your heart frighten you?

Have you condemned

Your heart to silence

And shadows?

Where are you going

How far away will you flee?

Will anyone ever again hear

The music of your laughter,

See your eyes once more

Fill and spill over in tears

Of compassion or grief?

I wait for your answer