Too Long In This Place Poem by Ryan Cole

I have been too long in this place
An exile to myself
living in the half-life of the memory of your smile
comfortable in this splendid squalor
but cast loose and cut off
drifting, rudderless,
I could never touch your savage grace
or tame your dancer's soul
Yours was not a heart given to forgiveness
or bound by temperant soul
but I am here
still in its shadow I linger
Too long in this place
in the lost light of the memory of your smile