Absence Is Not Nothing

Absence is not nothing.
It is an ache that swells with presence,
a lump in my throat,
a gnawing in my gut,
carving and filling the hollows
where you should have been.

Grief is more than gone-ness.
It is a relentless drip through granite,
stripping bits of me grit by grit
‘til I am tunneled through
with a void of sorrow
that is both empty and full of you.