Anguish

Anguish grinds like stone on stone
It fills my chest with force
It rends and tears muscle, tendon, bone
Ravaging through me on it’s molten course

The pain of loss haunts me
Phantom sensations from a severed limb
Like a ghost of foam borne from the sea
Not loss of appendage, but cherished friend

A misjudgment of character yet again?
A pretty bottle with the flavor of swill?
Both of us reacting to the bell’s revenge
Like Pavolov’s dog, it bends our will

I will unlearn this dreaded trait
Perhaps one day she will as well
I dare not let it make my fate
To do so makes an earthly hell

I wish her happiness and peace
To find herself and cleanse her soul
Then know one day her great release
And find me waiting, my arms to hold.