The Dreaded Call

A gleefully ignorant day is chosen

By Life to play its cruellest trick

I peer out the window, to sunny skies

Set to buckle down to routine

Then the message arrives –

A voice, a text, a knock on the door

They may say much, but all I hear

is that “they” are no more.

 

The words, like arrows

From the devil’s bow

They slit my tongue, pierce my ears

And then my heart

Abandoning my indigent brain

Desperate, it sifts through memories

Wipes off the dust;

And leaves me to face the emotion

 

Aged, yellowed images hit me; flush

The brightest of them all, that smile

And the loving, innocent eyes

By now I long to hear that voice

Feel the warmth of embrace

Alas, afraid, it’s much too late

I shed a tear in their name

Then another, then another…

 

As words fail me, I look around

The day no longer half as sunny

Gloom soon turns to regret

A swathe of ‘whys’ invade my thoughts

Why, oh why not one more day

To hear, to touch

Oh, just to sit with them

And watch the world go by

 

Regret turns to resolve

The resolve to connect, to love

To express my innermost thought

I say such a moment is worth 

Every second I invest

For when the day comes 

I’d rather reminisce

Than regret.

Yet once fleeting grief takes its leave

I leave my aching wounds to time

Resolves gives in to routine

And I, gleefully ignorant

Await that next call…