Sitting Here Alone at Night and Thinking...

The moon lies hid in the breadth of the sky
The dark is a black, unrelenting veil
No shadows of tree or willow-limb sigh
The wind is a low and monotonous wail
The silence is thick and heavy and deep
Memories are quick and unwilling to sleep

The flames in the fireplace flit and dance
The clock marks the hour in strict, perfect stride
Somewhere a first love is taking its chance
And somewhere someone's final chance has died
I am neither; but caught up in the midst
Of apart, yet together; of what was and what is

Life is a battle of paltry decay
Gain is the backdrop of misery and death
Even the darkness is merely the prey
Of dawn; it melts in the light’s faintest breath
Hope is the whisper that pierces the night
Love is the Master that spurs us to fight

Here in the dark and the quiet, alone
Minutes and memories and musings compete
A flicker, a shadow, a breath, present gone
Until history and eternity meet
When that day will be not one soul can tell
But Time is the key to Heaven or Hell

Janet~