…needs no clock to define it

Drenched and drowning
in the endless void
of loneliness
no company but the night
here, where your whispers
still linger
hushed and distant
in the ethers of sorrow

the empty shadows
are beautiful
but barely seen
shifting ghostlike
sensuous and silent
oblivious to prying eyes
they paint the darkness
in shades of black
and shawls moonlight
an intimate glimpse
of the intangible

I stare intently at the clock
unmarked and voiceless
without a tick or a tock
its hands circle
in futile repetition
the seconds
the minutes
the hours
uncounted

the irony of this
is not lost on me
as fate has decreed
that forever
is only a moment
and the magnitude
of a moment
needs no clock
to define it

the final glimpse
of a falling star
the last gasp
of a fading candle
the lonely flight
of the last leaf
are all forever lost
in a single breath
between heart beats

all that remains
are the distant echoes
and fading reflections
and the constant
drip, drip dripping
of hope bleeding away

in its place
the flowers of loss
are now blooming
from the seeds
once planted
in my heart

© Ann Bagnall