To An Absent Poem by Andre Paoliello

I have a reason to feel saudade,
I have a reason to accuse you.
There was an implicit pact you broke
and with no good-bye you went away.
You have detonated the pact.
You have detonated the common life, the common acquiescence
of living and exploring the paths of obscurity
with no deadline no consultation no defiance
to the limit of fallen leaves at the time of falling.

You had anticipated the time.
The hands of your clock went mad, maddening our hours.
What could you have done that is more severe
than the act with no continuance, the act itself,
the act that one doesn't dare nor know how to dare
because nothing is what lays past it?

I have a reason to miss you,
our comradely and friendly chats,
mere handshaking - not even that!
The voice modulating known, banal syllables
that meant always certainty and safeness.

Yes, I miss you.
Yes, I accuse you because you have done
the non-predictable by the laws of friendship and nature
You did not even give us the right of questioning
why you did it, why have you gone away.