…dressed in crimson and black

Our love was dithyrambique, wildly excessive
and almost religious in our devotion
our hearts always sang together
you loved me as though tomorrow was promised
as though time was just a fantasy
I loved you with the recklessness of rivers after rain
overflowing every boundary, drowning in your eyes
and lost in those impossible nights
when the moonlight spilled through the curtains
and painted our entwined bodies with its silver
but that was also, where I lost myself
such beautiful lies we told each other
we were incapable of accepting endings
every goodbye became a complex aria
then heartbreak finally arrived, dressed in crimson and black
throwing red roses at our feet
while somewhere in the dark, an invisible orchestra
played the final movement, of our impossible symphony
I still remember the last time that you looked at me
there were oceans whispering in the depths your eyes
and I wished I could drown in them, just one more time
I ached to walk back into those dark waters
to disappear into their depths, leaving nothing behind
but instead, I chose to turn away
and now sometimes, in the slow flowing night
when the wind begins its’ restless wandering
I can hear something shifting, in the darkness
and suddenly, you are beside me again
for one impossible moment, we are still together
infinite and burning, like two distant stars
that have not yet discovered
that they have already burned away
©Ann Bagnall