PHOENIX

Are my treasured memories

Collapsing into comas of oblivion?

Does the darkness of lost years

Hide our ruin in false hopes?

And yet the reminders of you

Rise up with every morning’s light

And swoop into night’s blistered dreams

Like a phoenix in fair and fancy flight.

I walk the beaches every day

And marvel at the shades of blue.

I imagine you gripping my arm

The way you used to do.

I see your black eyes shining

As you speak and softly laugh.

I marvel as the sun kisses

Your skin just the way I want to.

If only we had been brave

And taken those final steps.

Our hearts might well have saved

Our babies from their nothingness.

But I still pray that you might rise

Adorned with triumph’s sashes

From the flames that severed us

And turned unlawful love to ashes.