The way you have crafted this poem Chris….the first and the last stanzas feel as if they are directed to the reader and the middle four float like islands in between, each one with its own story to tell, each intimate and leaving the reader feeling privy to something that was not meant to be shared. I felt so many different things reading this. The varied layers of memories and reflections pack an emotional punch, probably the strongest I have felt in a while. You set off my empathy and my sorrow and my loss and the intensity took me by surprise. I had pause in the middle when I read:

‘….for the raw wound never healed

it gets revealed in each line

there is no art in a broken heart

only shards of a portrait

smashed by a careless burglar

looking for gold coins’

And I thought to myself…’this one is going to hurt’…..and it did

Your final stanza is heartbreaking and again, the structure of the lines, fading away:

‘…she is gone

she is

gone’

added incredible weight to the piece.

Your reward for breaking your editor today is Editors’ Choice!