By Ivan Leonard Wright
Date: 8 April 2001

The Want Of You

The want of you is like no other thing;
It smites my soul with sudden sickening;
It binds my being with a wreath of rue-
   This want of you.

It flashes on me with the waking sun;
It creeps upon me when the day's done;
It hammers at my heart the long night through-
   This want of you.

It sighs within me with the misting skies;
Oh, all the day within my heart it cries,
Old as your absence, yet each moment new-
   This want of you.

Mad with demand and aching with despair,
It leaps within my heart and you are-where?
God has forgotten, or he never knew-
   This want of you.

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