Frances Koziar
Parting

You
died
with one
final gasp,
your eyes wide like you
couldn't believe it either, yet—
I lingered / till you went stiff, needing / to know that you
were gone / when you never / would have left, that I / couldn't save you / when I gave you the world;
I needed / proof that this / was all over: the blank page past / the happy ending, that I / would never
wake curled / against you in the grey predawn,

one
half
of our
mosaic—

as if / the very
sun / had stopped rising, casting Earth
beyond recall / into a strange / and lonely / darkness.