How is it that the universe expands
and I cannot diminish thoughts of you?
Your memory should be cold now
instead it scorches and burns

melting the edges of my existence
until sleep eludes my grasp
and I chew on my lip, surprised
that blood tastes more of salt than copper.

Pain travels from twilight into blinding brightness.
There is no impenetrable shell, no leaden wall,
only the will to cauterize its oppressive nature
and banish it into the shadowed recesses of being.

I knew when the bells were silenced
that it was finally done, as was I.
The snow fell furiously trying to cover
the ugliness only man can beset upon himself.

The memory of warm lips
brushed against my bluing ones
and I felt myself rise above the frost
but there was no lightness in my spirit.

Carillon splendor had marked the births and deaths
of everyone I had ever known, but no more...
it would die along with me and fall
into the dusty desolation of this place.

The sons of Adam had honed their weapons well ,
smashed the fruits of labors of all who had come before.
They had stolen the sweetest of sounds in a greedy grab for glory
and tossed it into the vacant winds of history.