Loss. First youre full, then suddenly empty--like melting ice, yet you remain frozen as you melt. Everything you feel fills you up like cotton fills a doll, bolstering your self- image. Once snatched, you collapse inside, yet your frame swings you aimlessly about. Somehow, you manage to get to where you are going yet you dont really want to go. You become lost, immersed in memories, soaked in confusion and regret. And while you spin images through your mind again and again, they seem to repeat themselves in effigy like a flip booknever changing, never getting better. How do you ameliorate this situation? Everything that meant something to you has disappearedshifted as blatantly as day to night yet no stars shine to light your path.

 

A hole. It expands throughout your stomach, mind, eyes, and it will not fill. After a sandwich, five cookies, and a two hour walk, it is still empty. Memories surround it, poking, taunting its sides. How can I fill this hole? Sweet kisses, gentle hands, running down dark alleys as adrenaline pushes me forward. I need the excitement, the laughter, the love. . . the attention that makes my entire body spasm with joy. What happened? How did it happen? Was it my fault? My entire life changed. Shifted like an hour hand. . . yet will it return to that 3 oclock spot? Only time will tell.

Dara Belic