Where Did You Go? (Revised)

Where did you go,
As the soles
Of your feet
Grew blue-
As your familiar eyes caked
Into unfamiliar
Halos of smoke?

Where did you go,
When your hand failed
To grasp my own,
And only your lips-
Rubbles of pavement-
Gaped at the sound
Of my voice?

Where did you go,
When those halos froze,
Suspended somewhere,
And those pavements froze,
Buried somewhere,
That I could not reach?

Where did you go,
When they turned your body
Into flames,
Leaving only dust?
And how is it,
I am here and you,
Are not?

How is it,
I will return
To an empty nest,
Where mothers are the ones,
Who fly away,
While I remain,
Hiding in the facade-
The very mirage of you
Bound to the couch
Where you once reigned,
Even when disease
Had reigned you.

And how,
How can it be,
That when I go back to that nest-
Walk up to that couch-
I am greeted,
By the silent shine
Of a box that is not you?