Impressions
Linda Hindman

Ionly miss where the ring has been
Left thumb's automatic check is less and less.
My finger has, three years later
Stopped forming itself around leaving gold.
Strange that there was no missing the man who pushed it on.
Not having been around me
Like the ring.
I do not miss his ways. I never knew him
Missed only what I needed him to be.
Having grieved the living man to my heart's death
For what was not there, what could not be
More and less for two decades tears wrung me out.
The best he gave was good:
His daughters,
And teaching them to love him as he is, I let them go.
Perhaps they will not give up waiting.
But camaraderie was not the Missing Dream that wore
Hardened calluses beneath the ring
But longing for life without lies
Not even knowing love
Reflected back like mirrors
Does not decrease like silver moonlight
But through the glass is magnified.
Now tears are from sharpening iron
Pure sparks of an honest man
Who has not carelessly pushed a ring round my finger
But bound my soul and ringed my heart
So that I feel the shape of him
When he leaves the room


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