is a face that hangs 
in the air, as if the air
were a screen and your heart
the machine that casts the image.

Absence is the shadow
that has broken free of its forms 
and wanders the earth.

Absence is a stone, of course.

Absence is the name 
the man of faith repeats
in his sleep, and also the woman,
until they too are gone.

Absence is the body the soul creates
from air that masquerades as nothing
throughout the house.