Silhouettes

“Silhouettes”

You’re among the silhouettes, flashing all day long—
You skin the light from off my soul—it just does not belong.
Tell me, how now shall we bury the rejected residue?
I pray my grave be silent while I sing a song to you.

That world has departed, but we can talk about it still.
We can talk through the night of remembrance until
It stirs with new life. Until it is yesterday.
Beyond this room, the world is swept away.
Only this moment, only this moment exists.
Outside your eyes there is only shadow and mist—
You walk with the truth, but you are lying
While just past the door, tomorrow is dying.
And I don’t know what you want me to believe.
All I want you to know is that I don’t want you to leave.

Where will we be when tomorrow withers aside?
Will we have lived our lives, or will we have died?
Why say goodbye when our ashes are in the ocean?
Why say it’s over when your heart is not broken?
Wait ‘til tomorrow, and let me decide
If our blood links, or our nerves divide.

I knew the heavens, but never knew the stars
Until the sky was no longer ours.
I see all the beauty where you no longer dwell—
I never knew it until we said, “Farewell.”
Now it lingers where you should stand
Now I feel your absence in my hand,
And I hold it to my heart with my regrets
While I watch you among the silhouettes
Of yesterday. I close my eyes to dream of my friend—
And that dream will follow me to whatever end
When the candle dies, and all is shadow,
When today is but an echo
Yes. Ah yes. That dream shall follow hence
And beauty, the beauty of such reverence
I shall pay to thee
When that dream follows me.

© 2022 Marten Hoyle