Still Burning

You are hidden who knows where,
among the yellowing leaves of
a paralyzed time, crystallized
in the nothingness of memory.

It was my own hand to throw you
over the edge, to curse your thorns,
o adolescent rose, goddess of my silence;
I couldn't go any further
your radiant summer,
I couldn't see the ice glistening beyond
the garden of dreams.

Years have fallen like lead dominoes,
I've learned to dance with life
even as it simulates death, and yet,
if there is light in this sunset of stone,
it's because a spark remains of you,
and I still burn.