Home they brought her warrior dead:
She nor swoon'd nor utter'd cry:
All her maidens, watching, said,
"She must weep or she will die."

Then they praised him, soft and low,
Call'd him worthy to be loved,
Truest friend and noblest foe;

Stole a maiden from her place,
Lightly to the warrior stepped,
Took the face-cloth from the face;
Yet she neither moved nor wept.

Rose a nurse of ninety years,
Set his child upon her knee--
Like summer tempest came her tears--
"Sweet my child, I live for thee."

Dawn still breaks
Waves still crash upon the shore
Time moves on
Life continues just as before

But....
How can it be?
When you're not here!

The sun still sets
A blazing painting in the sky
The moon and stars shine brightly
Breath taking beauty I can't deny

But....
How can it be?
When you're not here!

The world just keeps on turning
The birds still sing their songs
I hear laughter from those around me
They play music and sing along

But....
How can this be?
When you're not here!

Even I betray you
My heart still beats
I miss you more every day
Still, I'm able to breathe

But....
How can this be?
When you're not here!

I don't know the answers
I only know it's true
I suppose that's how it goes
I have to learn to live without you

But....
It's still so hard for me,
Cause you're not here.

rarely if ever sings anymore
just clutches the limb like
its her last thing
turns her head now and then
and the cats have lost interest
the ***** will avow
the cats never even
look her way
they have Mockingbirds and Jays
to chase
and she just sits there
nary a caw or tweet
or a turn of her beak at
a worm
and
I used to love to hear her sing
Come on my dearest, she chirped.
Since he flew off that day
and never returned,
I have not heard a word.

I am a woman,beautiful and divine.
Living not to impress men but to live in preparation for eternity,beauty is within and out.
With integrity I choose to live my life,with respect,love and honor I choose to treat people.
I am a beautiful soul,
Make up doesn't make me better,my mind developing makes me better. To live is to accept the fact that you're not here to stay but to prepare for eternity.

The mood seems desolate at dusk,
a time when emotions are on the rise;
The shining hours of day are gone,
and mystical images confront our eyes.

Not quite sure of what we see,
in the vastness of the indigo skies;
'Round about the glowing lamps of light,
keenly focused upon iridescent sights.

Are we witnessing life's mysteries unfold,
the way our elders' stories told ?
Yet darker still our evening grows,
shivering, shaking in the windless cold.

Sitting close on our front porch swing,
seeking wonders of imagining;
There they go--the ghosts of our youth,
which beckon still despite the sting.

We're not alone as visions float by,
and dawn reveals what the future may bring.

Frances McClelland
July 17, 2016

Others, I am not the first,
Have willed more mischief than they durst:
If in the breathless night I too
Shiver now, 'tis nothing new.

More than I, if truth were told,
Have stood and sweated hot and cold,
And through their reins in ice and fire
Fear contended with desire.

Agued once like me were they,
But I like them shall win my way
Lastly to the bed of mould
Where there's neither heat nor cold.

But from my grave across my brow
Plays no wind of healing now,
And fire and ice within me fight
Beneath the suffocating night.

A vision of black,
Heads bowed,
Women weep as he's lowered into the ground.
His mother cried,
So did I,
People couldn't help but sigh.

The rain flowed beneath our feet,
Into the ground where he would retreat,
A place as hollow as hell,
Where he would never  fit in well.

I feel responsible for his death,
to his parents I apologise,
I wish to join him;
Every single day,
In the ground,
Where he lay.

You brought a light into my life.
No, you brought a glow into my life.
Neon.
Stick, necklace, bracelet.
A glow under covers in a fort made of whispers, linen, love.
Except you weren't just the glow,
but also the fort.

You defended me from the bombardment I threw at myself.
I, a dedicated double agent,
and cursed to operate as such.

And like a fort,
while protecting that which was enclosed, you were the one who took the hits.
Feelings, confusion, uncertainties.
Missiles from my life that crashed into yours.

And eventually, broke everything down.
The agent's mission complete.
Starting with a fort,
Ending with just a wall left standing,
you on the other side.
Forts aren't built to be sieged from the inside out.
People aren't built to defend themselves from those they love.

They say that time heals all wounds and they also say that time wears away stone.
But what they sometimes forget is that with effort and pain,
Stone can be broken apart without waiting for the time...
...to...
...drag...
...by...
And then, instead of only useless sand,
there may still be some pieces of worth.

Is there strength left to break down the wall that's still between us?
The stone that's left in your heart?
To get to a place, where all that exists is rubble.
To be carefully sorted through,
finding the memories and remnants of times passed.
To be rebuilt into something stronger than before.