Alas! Our Tomb is Empty

“Alas! Our Tomb is Empty”

There is a fear in me that I cannot hide,
Something I’m aware of I just can’t describe.
I should know better than to let myself dream
That love is more than what death might seem.

When you come walking through that door
I’ll be there, and I’ll be missing just like before.
The beauty I never forgot will be remembered
The familiar world left behind will be discovered—
I’ll hold my heart for you in surrender
But what if you do not enter?

Guided by knowing you need everything
Except for the love that to you I bring,
The birds have returned, but they do not sing
The flowers are quiet, and don’t welcome the spring
As long as you say that you are not my king.

Haunted by angels that some call mistakes,
My heart in tumult awaits you and breaks—
Their wings rise to the corners of my mind
Speaking in terms that can’t be defined:
They make Heaven of all that may be
And Hell of all that I see—
They build their inferno of all that I can’t control,
And I know not whither will go my poor, weary soul.

I go to the sky—it used to be clear
But now its obscure and I hear
Voices in the shadows of the eclipse
As they wilt upon your withdrawing lips.
It’s a story I never thought I’d have to tell:
A love that fades into farewell.

O! God! Everything is burdened with sin
That we swore was freedom back then.
Tomorrow, will Heaven take me
Or will your words break me?
No tomb ever looked so fair
As the one our bloodless hearts will share,
But are you reluctant to be buried with me?
Alas! if so, that tomb shall be empty,
And those who pass will share the endeavor
To seal the vault in darkness forever,
With the epitaph: “Here lies what God decreed
Should run with such blood as never may bleed.”
And I, through Heaven or Hell shall go in disgrace
Of lying eternal without your embrace.

© 2022 Marten Hoyle