Birds of December

“Birds of December”

I made a promise in a whisper, again.
I vowed to you I would remember when
Our sunken clouds found the arms of the sea,
And when you, in your sorrow, turned to me
As if to speak of a hundred storms thundering,
And of a thousand angels slumbering.
Yes—I promised always to recall
That what you said was nothing, nothing at all.

But your silence was a word in itself.
And in your eyes, I saw somebody else
As I watched the rising of the sun
Thinking of all the dying that we had done
Outside one another’s arms—with you in mine.
I saw something fantastically and frighteningly divine
When “I love you” never could satisfy,
Even after we had said “Goodbye.”

One night of loneliness became forever—
Loneliness felt as when we were together.
Upon that sea where our clouds were drifting,
It was your heart my snow was lifting
While my own sank into the shoreless tide
With the truths you long denied.
In that moment, I thought perhaps you’d say—
No, sing the echo of myself that I’d lost along the way.
And I promised to hear it forever…forever and anon.
But when I turned to listen, you were gone.
But the voice of morning, as with birds of December,
Sighed with the songs I still remember:
And I promised to recall
What you said—which was nothing at all.

© 2022 Marten Hoyle