Melancholy

Without you, there is no song, no breath.
In my lungs – the bitterness of a burnt-out autumn.
Echoes of the past come whispering back –
Shadows, ravens, black sheets spread around.

Memory lashes, inventive and cruel,
Striking hard with heavy boots.
The skies pour down curses with the rain,
And my soul drowns in mud, in melancholy.

In a clouded, restless subconscious
Thoughts tumble down like an avalanche:
Were you sent to me as punishment?
If so – then perhaps I must repent.

Night breaks in through the cracks of the curtains,
Its blackness creeping across the room.
I am ready. I replay the past again –
Your lips, your hands, your languid eyes…
      **************
You were my capricious world,
My sea, my universe entire.
The splash of waves, the golden dawns,
A revelation I could never fathom.
A tender cloud, a gentle morning,
A warming ray upon the soul,
My happiness, just half-confessed –
Not simply good – but the best of all