Shadows - May 16, 2000

I sit here
in the dusky shadows
as the moon wanes
and my mind
turns inside

Wandering down dark alleys
and hidden corners
I pick
at the memories that
are hidden here

Grey light is shed
across these dank corners
with solemn pain
that cannot be seen
in the light of day

My breath catches
as I come across
happy memories

For that is all they are -
a carefully horded
snapshot
of days gone by
when one was not a lonely number
but a moment apart.

Cautiously I sift
through something
that was
but is no more

And a bittersweet pang
of pain archs across
nerves long raw

A certain wryness crosses
the mind
- at the deliberateness as
we pick at this scab
only to uncover
a pain
that has not
healed.