11/1/11

A Poem To My Dead Love
By Jason Sturner


My tears have filled my hands for centuries
and for centuries more, I’ve cried.
A broom of misfortune swept you away
and there hasn’t been a day
I haven’t missed you.

The time between sunrise and sunset
is a region of despair, and my nights
are wretched with the silence of a dream;
a dream which dreams me alone.

I once was a man of polished marble,
strongest simply because you loved me.
Fortune had been my blessing, and you my bloom—
the world then was an answered question.

But my god, how quickly the puzzle drops and splits apart,
a million pieces lost in earth and time;

how in the blink of an eye
my eyes could matter no more;
how I’ve longed for more of death and less of life,
just to be closer to you, my love.


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Jason Sturner was born and raised in the western suburbs of Chicago, where he has worked as an elevator operator, rock n’ roll drummer, graphic designer, naturalist, and botanist. He has published four books of poetry and currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee.