…still walk beside me

I have thrown a thousand wishes to the wandering winds
and watched them as they fell upon the roaring flames
now all but ashes dissolving into the restless night
silenced, like lost echoes, or truth
yet somehow lingering, still slowly drifting
as the wind is dying like an old bruise its’ colours slowly changing
shifting from red to black and slowly fading
into many shades of blue
until I can’t see them anymore, but I can still feel them here
the shadows of yesterday still walk beside me
they are quietly whispering of all of the things that can no longer be
just as they linger in places that I can no longer see
the soft melodies of long lost hopes and broken dreams
haunt the edges of my reality and I ache for the time
when they set me free
I continue to pretend that I am going somewhere
but I am really stationary going nowhere at all
the mind is unmercifully cruel, it edits and it replays
brightens the moments that I tried to let fade
such artistry it takes to paint these scenes
but when I reach for you my arms are empty
and all I can see is light refracted through a broken prism
the slow realisation that looking back
is just another way of standing still
and the silence, as mute as the grave, completes the thought
© Ann Bagnall