Missed by Eric Nunnally

There are mornings we take for granted
And tomorrows we assume

And moments during the dull of the day
We don’t pay attention to

And lives we rush around and through
And eyes we seldom look into

Like leaves caught up in the wind
Too busy to know what we ought to

But catch a cold and miss the smells of a
Thanksgiving or Christmas morning

And suddenly...
You wish you had that gift
You now are mourning
_

Sunrises don’t inspire awe
And sunsets aren’t special anymore

We get used to streetlights coming on
And hardly notice the stars

But the sound of a rake on the sidewalk
Or a shovel scraping under the snow

Are those boring sounds that remind us
That a fall and a winter will come
_

A groggy “Good morning” doesn’t sound so nice
Until you can only remember it

And picturing a loved one asleep in a chair
Seems boring until you wish for it

The sound of a bathroom door pulled shut
A creak in a room or the start of a car

The answer on the phone when it’s first picked up
The swing of a gate closing in the front yard

All seem quite ordinary
Like a leaf by the wind, falling
Kissed

Until the last leaf lets go of the tree
Of the life, of the love
The color and sound
Of the beauty we knew and
Is missed

November 29, 2004