…in the corners of darkness

Memories are rattling
in the corners of my mind
trying to escape
the cobwebs and the dust
in the cloying darkness
their constant calls resonate
in the depths of my soul
distant echoes of whispers

shifting like ghosts they flicker
at the edges of consciousness
familiar yet always elusive
I reach, trying to grasp them
but they slip through my fingers
tethered by threads
too fragile to hold
they dissolve like smoke
in the shadows

I see flashes of faces
I can no longer name
and voices I can no longer recall
just brief moments
that shimmer and fade
swirling like ripples
on a moonlit pond
dancing
in the corners of the dark
half-forgotten
half-remembered

whispering their secrets
into the silence
trapped behind walls
of my own making
their cries are muffled
by the weight of years
longing to fly free
to rise from the dust
beyond the cobwebs
that cling like regrets
to find their way back
to the daylight

but I hold them
in this shadowed place
unwilling to let them go
for these memories
though haunting
and incomplete
are my anchor
my tether to another time
when the weight of ‘now’
did not crush the breath
from my lungs
or suck the life out of my soul

so I oblige them
I let them rattle and sigh
in the dark corners
I let them sing their mournful song
a dirge that lulls me to sleep
for they fill the empty space
between heartbeats
between breaths
constant reminders
of what I once held dear
and of what I once feared

as the night deepens
I close my eyes
and pull the shadows close
I wrap myself in their fading light
for some things
are better left buried
in the corners of darkness
amongst the dust
of what was
or might have been
© Ann Bagnall