A Space Where A Poem Ought Be Poem by Sojourner Kincaid Rolle

I've known of missing poems before
poems stronger than the suppressing hand
poems more powerful than the invisibility

poems that speak from the realm of the soul
from the place that needs no facade
the place unpalpable where the poem touches

a father's unrenderable gaze

absent from the family photograph
frozen in clenched smile abstraction
hovering somewhere near the unfathomable

a hole where a heart once lay

cached between bone and muscle
a conduit for that which makes life livable
its beat but an echo its rhythm but a spasm of memory

hurt where a friendship once was

its demise never anticipated
its loss never contemplated
it measure infinite

space where a leg ought be

the missing limb but bits of flesh femur blood
soft shrapnel on a once abandoned war ground
the mined soil holding secret its maiming terror

nothing where something ought be

it is said that to which the missing was adjoined
the left behind
mourns its disattached
one sees the shining knee -
the favored other

there is emptiness longing
grief is spoken
and desire