Virtual Loss

[Delta40]

I dream of your existence
where you are free to hold me
as I rummage through
old baggage dumped
behind a travellers' hostel.

Your hand guides me here
This, your virtual residence
as you pass through my heart.
My own dreams remind me
you will never be nearer than this.

Even if I ache to kiss your face,
feel the texture of your skin
under my age worn hands,
your virtuality makes my longing
impossible to quench.

I feel you leave in my own mind.
How well I love from a distance!
I wait for your return to my corner,
even when the thrust of such love
carries no force.

Somewhere between virtuality
and dreamscapes
I inhale your scent and
drown in your strength.
You penetrate my surreality.

The powerlessness of wishing.
The salty drops which
splash onto my cheek.
None will alter the reality
of virtual loss.

[Silas Thorne]

Great work, Delta! There's a big pit of emptiness here, which transmits itself to the reader.
I'm wowed by the parallel between 'leave' and 'love'. I was also really hit by these lines: 'I feel you leave in my own mind', 'your virtuality makes my longing/ impossible to quench', which, together with the final strophe:

'The powerlessness of wishing.
The salty drops which
splash onto my cheek.
None will alter the reality
of virtual loss.'

really transmit emptiness and the sadness of 'virtual' loss.

'Virtual loss', a wonderful phrase! It holds so much meaning in it.
Apologies for not commenting on some of the other poems you have put online recently, but this is excellent. Well done!

[Haunted]

It's so moving, filled with passion and loss, which is real and painful. Delta at her best!

[PrinceMyshkin]

These


I wait for your return to my corner,
even when the thrust of such love
carries no force.


are killer lines, and "virtual loss" has the sting of a young branch, bent down, then released to hit one in the face with the force of one's own energy in bending it over.

[Scheherazade]

Such a strong poem, Delta! Reads and feels great.

Well done! :)

(There should be an apostrophe after "travellers" :blush:)

[Silas Thorne]

I see where you've added some new material to the poem to create the new fourth strophe. It reads even better now than the original lines for this poem you first posted on here. :)

[tailor STATELY]

A powerful poem Delta40. A masterpiece of unrequited love.

With admiration,
tailor STATELY

[Hawkman]

A powerful lament, Delta.

Live and be well. H

[Delta40]

Thanks for your kind comments everyone. This poem just poured itself out yesterday morning.

[Jerrybaldy]

One of your very best Delta.
That is saying something.
I loved it.
Jerry

[hillwalker]

I've had to come back to this a number of times before feeling ready to comment.

Even now I'm unable to do it justice - the deft way you describe an unrequited love based on pixels on a screen and bytes of written dialogue rather than on an actual physical relationship. Yet you are able to make it seem just as meaningful. I loved it.

H

[Delta40]

Thank you Hill. I don't know what to say about this poem other than I really felt it when I wrote it.