…into the shadows

I loved you, but you never really loved me back
there were moments, brief moments
but they vanished, into the ethers of endless time
our syncopated love song, it’s rhythm of pleasure and pain
now faded away into the shadows
where we are never together and never apart
my melancholy still wanders down many familiar paths
between the darkness and the light, of my aching soul
in the quiet distance I hear the soft sound of butterflies
escaping their own winter confinement
their ethereal wings finally beating
keeping time with my trembling heart
the petals are slowly drifting in silent flight
silhouetted against the brightest sky
leaving in their wake, gentle ripples of fragrance
the trees whisper their secrets to the passing breeze
in a slender shaft of daylight, a single leaf slowly falls
surrendering to the moment
the remaining leaves, still clinging to their trees
their beautiful shadows slow dancing
gently fluttering in their frailty
until finally, brief and transient, they fall down to rest
for one small alluring moment, in their destiny
they serenade the day
as the birds whisper in trembling tones
their soft refrain almost too quiet
too beautiful for me to hear
© Ann Bagnall