The Chain

Is there life before death?
Or is this what was waiting?
Is it an illusion—this thing called breath:
The end we are facing?

Has everything been taken?
What more have I to give?
When will I waken
With hope, and learn to live?

I fall upon my knees—not to pray
But to let myself sink
Into the words I say;
Build this chain—link by link

Between fate and sighs, alas!
I am slain by immortality,
And all that could not come to pass
Will be, forever haunting me.

These many nights, I have wept,
Far from the sleep in your bed,
With the silence I have kept,
I am alone and I am the dead

Mourning my grave upon the shore—
Is this the beginning of…
…The end and nothing more?
Or is this only love?

© 2021 Marten Hoyle