THE EARS OF ABSENCE

 

I find myself talking to a ghost these days—

to an absence that can’t hear me.

 

Even when it had the ears to hear, listening

wasn’t something its body could easily manage.

 

I knew this then 

and I know this now.

 

So why am I still trying to bend the ear of absence 

when I know its deafness is deafening?

 

Because the shovel I can’t put down thinks

it's filling a hole when it's tirelessly digging one.