Inferno

You left quite unexpectedly on a chilly, winter's day,

As raindrops fell outside against my window pane,

Your absence was keenly met by a deep-seated pain,

A burning flame singeing my soulless, riddled form.

Each day thereafter burned anew but felt instead

As though I stood in the shadow of the fire's imminence

In lieu of ’neath the skies filled with sun and stars.

*

Days catapulted into months, spinning into years

Whilst my soul’s burning quest stayed unfulfilled. Alone,

My mind fixated on memories of your warm smile,

But love was an unwavering flame, always distantly aloof.

Then hair turned grey, skin wrinkled, and eyes grew dim,

Inside me grew a flame of fear all hope was lost amidst

Life's inferno, which had left me burnt and cast aside.

*

Then upon chance, one late day in summer,

While on an afternoon walk, I chanced to meet you

On the walkway just outside my window, where ’oft I did perch.

Joy was mine recaptured, in time's echoing tempest,

A flame burning resplendent in a heartbeat of undying love.

The warming glow of your smile created a lasting flame

In a dying man’s aching, long lost, and forsaken soul.

*

And now I sit with the remembrance of love's flame, lit by

The gaze of your keen blue eyes which lingers even still,

And I am ever thankful to reacquaint my aching soul

With the flaming intensity of what was missed –

An abiding flame of love, so steady through lonely years,

It carries me now into the abyss, an inferno of final days,

Ignited by flames of burning gold and love’s immortal rays.