…of a moment

Drenched and drowning in an endless void of loneliness
no company but the night
here, where your whispers are still lingering
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 of moonlight
an intimate glimpse of the intangible
I stare intently at the clock
unmarked and voiceless, without a tick or a tock
its hands are circling 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