Come Back Poem by Effie Yalena Steyn

The floating dawn around me seems to say in sibilant
silent tones, what the night shouted bare and true
you can go to sleep with no one beside you
but waking up to the honesty of emptiness
squandering happiness
hurts.
Hopelessly checking, every five minutes, your
vital signs unchanging. Come back.

Carefully opening hearts new to the world
I stroke a hand so tiny it seems to
be dwarfed by the grains of sand,
so bruised it is no longer whole.
You did this to yourself, why won't you let me
heal you?
I miss the hours we spent just smiling
in a comfortable silence.
Eyes like ice
you told me you loved me,
I wanted to agree.
Je suis d'accord avec tu, Alex, mais ma coeur, c'est ne pas forte.

This creation, this joy, was both of ours
by right, but you made it wrong.
It was wrong all along,
though no one ever saw.
From trembling revelations that
were heralded in by our new-found
naiveté, something grew between us that now
I wish I could hang on to.
Your eyes live on, cold,
and I am sorry if I the reason they
close.

In truth I wish to deserve hatred, insults,
not your kindness, I don't deserve it.
Or you.