Nikki Giovanni




You Were Gone

You were gone
        like a fly lighting
        on that wall
        with a spider in the corner
You were gone
        like last week’s paycheck
for this week’s bills
You were gone
        like the years between
        twenty-five and thirty
        as if somehow
You never existed
        and if it wouldn’t be
        for the gray hairs
        I’d never know that
You had come.