…your voice echoes

Dreaming again
drifting back
through the years
the darkness surrounds me
yet I know this place
your voice echoes
in the night
I feel the cold stone walls
beneath my hands
I see stars
crowding the sky
their distant light trembling

then silence falls
and I awaken alone
to find myself empty
a hollow vessel
where the warmth of you
once dwelled
your presence fades
just as an extinguished candle
leaves the night
at the mercy
of the shadows
in the deep hours of solitude
I still seek you
in the rustle of the leaves
the sighs of the wind
and in the space
between heartbeats

the pale moon is watchful
and the stars
whisper their secrets
as I find myself bound
to this endless longing
the threads of memories
are woven into my dreams
always unravelling
in the dawn
your distant voice
is further away each day
retreating
like the outgoing tide

I cling to the echoes
as they bleed
through the cracks
in my soul
in absence you linger
in the shadows
in the scent of flowers
or the fleeting warmth
of a summer breeze
it seems my heart remembers
what my mind tries to forget
just as the night
clings to its stars
even with the rising
of the sun
© Ann Bagnall
2016