AN ENIGMATIC GUIDE

Life is short, precious, must end...

THE ENIGMATIC GUIDE

 

He held her hand

as her night fell,

stood patiently by her,

a shadow cut by moonlight

that darling eve,

and waited like an angel

for her to breathe.

And that breathing rasped

like an old saw,

it might have woken her

in her darkness

but it was much too late

for waking,

not now at this ending,

when the night was falling.

She thought in a dream

of the old days,

long days of childhood,

shorter days of love

and longer nights,

and that brief interval called life

that once would last for ever

but turned out to be

an age too short.

And he stood there, waiting,

her night descended on her,

blacker than black,

her feeble heart paused

and stopped

and he led her away,

a shadow amongst shadows

to an equally black

hereafter.

“I was a sinner,” she silently thought,

and smiled

at the beauty of her sin.

He kissed her hand,

and everything

stopped.

© Peter Rogerson