I
The night descends quickly
its purpose tearing through my mind
A picture of once unspeakable beauty
now marred and maligned
That blossoming withered hope
an empty bed nurses tenderly
What was joyous, righteous, set me free
no more than bitter memory
Her name and form are no more
for she will not abide
To be present and presence still
she stirs as with the tide
Her image undulates not grasped
from in to out of view
To seize, perceive, but to clasp
a name to put to you
II
Look up, as tales of love and loss
wash mightily over me
They are not one, nor four or two
numbered teardrops in the sea
My heart whose beat cries to the night
suffusing it with blue
She does not hear its song of woe
How could she take its cue?
Back from the sky her spectral eyes
watch without a care
She does not blink for my cries
as if she is not there
I beg upon your ears gone deaf
accept my serenade
Speak not to me, your silence dear
my feelings will not fade
III
A ghastly cold pervades my soul
as dawn breaks me from you
To walk amongst your many forms
you amongst me too
I speak, I woo, to draw you out
yet your silence persists
Your fears, like mine, lock you inside
compelling you to resist
You speak to peek, to prod and poke
feeling for a surfaced flaw
Judgment’s teeth slowly gnash
disinterest paints your face in awe
Confirmed suspicion now condemns
a monster conjured from your past
A tap of ash, a comment crass
the breath of newborn fancy, last
IV
A single coat upon a chair
the sun no more caresses
A slipping sigh, an empty stare
the shallowness it stresses
“Pay more attention to your cover”
canon speaks to me
“Without me she will not discover
what wonder there could be”
Idealized love devoid of form
my heart will not reject
For in lacking worldly warms
I divide misery from abject
Come soon again oh nightly plight
bring with you my fears
Wrap me up in your right
and hold me there for years