(...)

Ere time was drunk on my youth,
And age leapt forth in pain,
I wondered who would sing to me,
With the haze before a dream.
I thought of the lilies and the day;
The blushing of the rose upon my lips,
And the streams that ran to the sea.

There were trees that dreamt of spring;
Frost hungering for the grass.
Dew slumbered and thought of the dawn
While I lay with my heart outspread
For flavors of the autumn rain
Beyond summers never to be.

Is it possible I saw a light?
No. It was the flakes of diamonds
Falling like snow into the dark
With the blue surrounding.
I wept but a single tear
To see them fall into my palm
While the dread eclipse
Wrought shadows of the leaves:
Birds sang to night that never came,
And I became as ash in the wind.

But it seemed to me there was a face,
With eyes like gold to my sight.
I saw you in a season unborn
Still and faltering as my breath.
Time could never be the same
When our lips would once meet
The diamonds I kept to make a garden
Of minute lights in the cold.
And my tears fell into your palm
While a comforting silence was born.

© 2019 Marten Hoyle