Alone

 

The pines, darkly shrouded

in morning mist,

line the river

like guardians of the wild.

The water roars its winter fury,

white spray tumbling over rocks

and through the narrow

rock-walled chasm,

green with the river's passage,

all these years.

An eagle surveys all

from his perch atop

a giant cedar.

And me? I walk in sorrow

along your favourite river,

holding your leash

and still - always - missing you.

Do you feel me,

searching for your spirit,

lost in the absence

of your soft padding footsteps

by my side?

How many sad walks

along the river will it take

before there are no tears?

Your being gone

is still too big an absence,

and it has nearly been

one year.

for Mary's prompt at What's Going On - Lonely ,  In this poem I remember how I felt the first time I walked the river at Stamp Falls after Pup's death. I still miss him, and it has been fourteen years, as many years as he was alive. He had, as Annell once wrote, "a spirit too big to kill."