When He is Gone... #2

We cannot tell him then

Those words we ought to speak

Nor shake his hand or hug him

Or kiss his love-lined cheek

The ‘would-have-should-have’ ache

Of thoughts he did not know

Will not be there, if now we take

The time to tell him so

What good are accolades?

Or words, loving and dear

If we wait to express them

When he can no longer hear

Oh, tell him that you love him

Not upon a cold gravestone

But now; for all the words you speak

He cannot hear when he is gone

© Janet Martin

Poetics Aside Prompt: use the words 'When he is gone' somewhere in a poem .