Rude Awaking

Rude Awaking
By Christabel Germain

Some stranger is disappearing down
The street with my memory of you face.

A thief.
Had slipped in,
Uninvited,
And unnoticed.

A shadow cast across
The wall,
Filled with happy photographs
Of you and me.

Crept behind us in every room
Of our house.

I never saw him there.
Or heard his
Feet on the stair.

Blinded by a box,
He stole your hand.
Deafened by volume control.
He led you out.

The crash of the
Door altered me some
And I looked up,
But, the shadow was gone.

From alley to avenue
I searched.
You, I could not find.

It was only then that I realized,

I had a hand in your hurting
The white house sits as still as
A vessel at anchor, lighted rooms

Emptied of you belongings