Poem by R.M. Dolin, August 24, 2025
Your Absence Is My Answer
When caught off guard
in a high desert storm
the rain you waited for
never seems to stop,
nor does lightning
spitting spiderwebs of danger
in an undercurrent
of what happens
when shadows dance in the dark
and those who should know better
stand in defiance
on a wet metal roof
waiting for fate’s fugitive finally.
I anticipate your reply
with the somewhat same anxiety
as my dog hiding
in the bathtub,
his safe space
to escape
reality’s overwhelming intensity.
You weren’t just my lover,
we were friends
who mattered more than time,
which makes your absence an answer
I can’t bring myself to confront,
leaving me amped in agitation
like a dog afraid to hunt.
There’s an irony in laughter,
an invitation for more,
while silence brings the verdict
we are not hoping for.
I’m okay being foolish,
chasing dreams in the dark,
confident of my passions,
reckless courage elevated to art.
From the R.M. Dolin novel, “An Unsustainable Life.” Inspired by his uncle’s tradition, Issac starts to journal. His first crack at poetry is a bit rough, using a cobbled combination of prose and cliché rhymes. He has no idea what this poem’s about, it could be about Gabriela but he’s not ready to speculate because the poem just pours out in one pass as he sits in his courtyard portico waiting for a high-mountain storm to move on.
Written while soaking wet and cold cause I’d just come off my roof in a monsoon storm. I was up there looking for leaks as lightning dances overhead and thunder blasts so hard I feel ricochets off my windows. It is of course stupid to be on a metal roof in a lightning storm, but in my defense, you can’t find leaks on a dry day and my kitchen ceiling can’t take many more storms.
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