I look out on an empty harbor under a sky of forgotten blue. The day is barely started. The sun is making a slow climb up. My eyes are is taking a narrow, half-open view.

I hear the cars on the road below me, but they’re only so much noise — they remind me of a vacuum running in a hotel hallway some years ago. I try to recall yesterday’s walk in the sunshine, but I find an empty space inside that thought. Someone, lots of someones, are missing. I notice everyone who is not among them.

No runners are running. No walkers are walking. No people are standing waiting for their dogs. I don’t see people listening to ipods riding bicycles or skating by. Nowhere are talkers incessantly talking to listeners intently listening as they forget to be watching and unconsciously force others to move out of their way.

No one is sitting on benches thinking or sleeping. I can’t find the dreamers dreaming or the critics criticizing. No railers are railing or flailers flailing.

When you’re not here, your face, your mind, and your heart leave a hole in the picture.

Only you can fill the you-sized place in the universe.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!