Dave Bonta's "Apart" is about the ache of being away from someone you love. The opening two lines are blunt: without seeing her, the speaker says, "I am nothing." There is no decoration here, just a plain statement of emptiness.
The next two images give that feeling shape. A "great cry / grown in the spring" suggests longing that swells like new growth, something natural and unstoppable, yet it comes out as a cry rather than a song. The last image is the most surprising: "all the ham curing / in one little room." Curing meat hangs in a closed space, slowly concentrating its smell and flavor. Judging by the imagery, the speaker's desire is being kept in, pressed and intensified while time passes.
The mood is raw and strangely earthy. Spring brings hope, but the speaker feels cramped and waiting. The poem is short, and that brevity makes the longing feel sharp and unpolished.