Forever Never More

There are places shaped just like you, a velveteen hush

housing spirits of a long-forgotten place I simply cannot be bothered to touch

It’s you, haunting the starlit gardens that claim us--

growing vines and listless flowers splitting the soil, making it part

under the tombstone from where you stood just yesterday,

waiting until we become the spirits that remain, the ghost of you sits heavy in my heart

maybe we are and never were, but one thing is clearly true:

you were always comprised of soft violets and the sweetest lily-roses

shaken loose from your hand so that the touch may never fade

for yours was the last hand I held, so dear

I walk where your laughter shines brightest under all my rainy clouds

Even the trees bow their weary heads to the ground, and

the world spins into the glimmer of what we once were

rings of years circle out until we fade from claim, one that was never rightfully ours

but you were the softest lace and the brightest night

I loved you not as mortals love, but fiercely and with fight at every hour

as my heart travels to the distant moon, for you are just out of sight

reminders of how fragile the time we call home, so contrite—

never once our own

but as the years pass, something new calls to me, and in that,

just once, I feel your presence steal me away from a reality that could never be

and in that moment, I feel peace

for you are the light

the time

and the way

you are the frail depth where I sneak