Prezioso

          Prezioso

 

The pain of losing you began to swell

Like hints of seismic tremors underground;

Like healthy lungs starting to . . . feel unwell . . .

To send some unknown poisons all around

A heart that hurts before the wound is dealt.

Inside the chest a painful numbness flopped

As if stunned ribs received a whiplash welt

But would not know it till the slashing stopped,

Years from now, decades.  Nausea began

To flow before the trauma, this because

My body knew—as if a beached merman

Predicted suffocation in the jaws

Of air—your impending disappearance.

Soul scars never know a healing clearance.