I shall let you go now –
you were but a lucid dream;
a plume of fantasies
I exhaled in a lurch of longing.

Let me say goodbye
before I forget… to miss you.
Darling, you were the knife
I used to cut through
this long nursed ache that is life.

cardboard crowns   (awash with)
liquid laughter   (cascading)
all around   (litany)

empty eyes   (searching)
borrowed bliss   (enlightenment)
stale sorrow   (breaks me)

A sigh echoes across the chasm
of the sullen winter afternoon.
I dissolve daydreams with regret
in the cozy confines of my room.

I shall never understand
how time has passed me by
yet stretches ahead, yawning.
I am not alive; I cannot die.

The flowers wilt into dust,
the fruit hangs rotten.
Lost amid conjured trepidation
a promise slumbers forgotten.

Once upon a dulcet time
each path was ripe for the picking.
Dreams sour if they cannot cross
over to the land of the living.

I waste so much time
rueful of the time I wasted.
Every opportunity I missed,
each victory I never tasted.

The winter light warms my face
as I lie in bed, brooding.
The lump in my throat melts away;
my solitude turns soothing.

I savour the lightness of being
incomplete but whole.
If I can’t get that one epic win,
holistic hedonism is my goal.

Drop by drop, every tiny delight
I will use to fill this mighty ocean.
Whatever makes me happy,
I shall do with utmost devotion.

I smile and spring out of bed
as the sun dips below the horizon.
Stretch and switch on the lights
as I make my way to the kitchen.

The future is intangible –
the big picture I cannot yet see.
But today I shall take comfort
in woolly socks and hot coffee.

plum skies,
velvet eyes,
a familiar tune on your lips.
at peace, finally,
joyous serenity
as we await the apocalypse.

Red is
necessary.
I hope it will not be
everything you see when you look
at me.