Skeleton Tree

tonight 

dark and cloudy winter night 

i watched the last leaf 

fall from my skeleton tree 

and to the frozen ground 

it went 

it is one year now 

one year tonight 

365 days since i died 

it is not right living whilst dead 

i sit outside 

and began to freeze 

numbness colder than blood 

that used to run in my veins 

i found an unpacked box 

it lays inside 

that hollow trunk 

filled with pictures of you, 

us- perhaps a love poem or two 

trinkets to remind my decepit mind 

of you and i- 

and 

at the bottom of 

an unpacked box 

i found a book 

and rebroke my heart 

1,001 Baby Names 

it said 

as the spine cracked 

my tears danced upon each page 

i found some circled 

one by me 

two by you 

and my memory came back 

370 days 

my eyes reflected 

that time when i still lived 

your smiling face spoke 

Christian if it's a boy 

Ann-Marie for a pretty baby girl 

i took that book 

and buried with it my heart 

underneath my skeleton tree 

frozen tears 

crystal on that hard ground 

like dirty diamonds 

my baby forever in a bottle 

hanging from a branch nearby 

my brittle leaf dream lay 

wilted, in my frozen dead hands 

it is one year 

365 days 

one year this cold 

dark winter night

--william paris