Absence

An empty bench in the garden

Who was last sitting there? 

One loving couple

Oblivious of the world around,

Or a lone lover reading a letter, 

Alternatively hoping or despairing

At each crunching step approaching?

The absence of presence 

Does not signify lack of meaning.

A prolonged rest in music 

Is neither pure absence nor silence

But the focus of reality.

Absence becomes suggestion,

The unsaid screams in the silence

Then emerges poetry in motion

Joy, despair or serenity

Richer the poem becomes  

By discovering what is hidden

Therefore revealing the power of absence.

Lucette C. Bailliet ©