poem – Page 118 – Hearts Still Care

To R. P.

The moon has gone through her phases, so have I,

So has life, so has the World around me;

I’ve watched Friendship flower, wither and die –

First day; now it is Night that surrounds me.

In phases, they came – who chose to be friends;

In phases, they went, are going, shall go;

In short, everything, that matters, ends –

Our link’s, perchance, caught in this undertow…

But our link isn’t strained, let alone ended,

Come, let us make most of this happy night.

In Woe or Fear were you not befriended:

Our flower still blooms, unwary of Blight.

Hope and Love bless the smiles of you and me;

And, perchance, forever shall we happy be.

19 December, 2007.

I walk toward Doom and all before me is dark;

There is nothing between me and this wheel of fire.

All these flames are cold; there burns not even one spark

That can light this ambivalent destiny’s pyre.

An ally has borne me across these miles of strife

But the one has haunted even his quiet might

And all that comes to last of his and my life

Is a hope: bereft of reason and out of sight.

Sleepless night descends on my world again.

I find solace in the sun no more.

A veiled indifference, but no pain,

Fills a once-treasured heart’s now withered store.

No thing, no one, no where fills all life;

Little of my pleasures lie surfeit;

A withdrawal from joy and from strife;

No mem’ry of a hunger to satiate.

Played with Zoe, left her tired but content.

I envied this state, playful, panting, spent.

Cringed, when thoughts barged in to mar this time:

Thoughts of how death could travel in a kiss,

How vain to pour tears into wasted rhyme,

How fatefully one’s life could come to this.

6am

4th april 2007