The Absentee Poem by Nika McGuin

I never know what you're thinking
but I can guess, that it's not about me.
For you, I am on the back burner of your broken stove.
I'm the last chore on your never-ending list of to-dos.
Me? I am the link in your chain that - give or take -
neither makes nor breaks it.

For me, you are an open wound
that never ceases to ache,
an empty space where
there should have been
a beautiful centerpiece,
a missing chunk in my foundation
that leaves me feeling unsteady.

You are to me
what I have never been to you.
And oh how I wish, the opposite
were true.