Missing Rib

Sing to me of that below the deep

From the land of the lonely found

Whisper from between the cracks of firelight

I feel you there

Where my marrow moves

I know you have bedded down in sand

I can smell it in your voice

You could not see the sun

From the depth of the clean blanket

I can hear it in your eyes

In silence there you have lain

Though the wind howled above you

The waves dashed your lovers on the rocks

You drifted below

In your thirsty bone suit

I know it

I can taste it in your words

I can feel it in your scent

I can hold it with the smokey fingers of my soul

For through all of that

No matter what depths you plumbed

Ever silently waiting

Yearning for the day we would touch

I lay buried beneath you

Stephen Pursell, 12/98