Eternity

“Eternity”

When the storm divided the sky
We felt the old gods die
At the altars of their beneficence—
We never noticed the difference
Between the sky of yore and today,
Though perhaps it was not as blue
As when they bled their orisons away.
In our sorrow, we raised a statue
Of these idols and the blood they shed
Until mercy taught us to forget the dead.

Alas! as I look from waters chill and lone,
Near that seat of ancient stone,
My death plays before my eyes:
Springtide or a dream—I can’t be precise.

We were tortured by all that may have been
Ere they bore the gods to each coffin,
On which wreaths of darkness lay…
And I watched them carry us away.
I dreamed your voice would wake my heart,
As the shore invited me to depart.

We pass the churchyard where we were wed,
With the voiceless choir of the dead—
Singing what only angels discern,
Praying that our love will soon return,
That such as we shall not be forgotten
In this interlude between the Earth and Heaven.
But they are dead—there is no angel throng
To hear the silence or the luster of our song.


And we are borne in silence across the tide,
While I am holding onto you at my side—
The ashes of what we were flutter on the gale
As we untie the clouds that raise the sail—
To the skies our ships embark
Where stars glitter in the dark—
And view the sea within a sunbeam,
For Earth below is but a dream
And the gods lay slain throughout the space—
And I will love you, I will love you always
Though the dream fade, nothing lies in memory,
Dying I shall know you for eternity.

© 2022 Marten Hoyle