The week passed;
Yet it feels you just left.
Your presence filled our home
Now it feels bereft.

The pigeons coo at the window –
I can’t tell you to shoo them off.
It was your calling –
Now they fly in to roost.

The house is asleep –
Even Zuri leaves me for bed.
You would stay –
For the slightest sound
Made you raise your head.

A protector – and mine by choice –
Your small black face with me –
Your eyes sharp and vibrant –
Untouched by duplicity.

The house is silent with you gone;
You have found Zach somewhere –
You’re both happy together –
Leaving our home bare.

Grief has robbed my sense of time
And I still say “my kids” instead of one –
Zuri misses your bossiness
And how you’d make her run.

Heart heavy, eyes swollen, brain numb –
And if I smile, I cannot forget
My brave daughter, my gentle son.