Lament 7: Alone

New moon and fog 
As I glance out
From my cave. 
A smugglers’ night: where are they?

(Words on a page
Delight me. I wouldn’t, couldn’t 
Be taught 
to hear

As you heard.)
Some trees are leafless
Skeletonal
And some cling to their leaves. 

(You’ve left 
And a new season
Is emerging 
Into bleak darkness.)

A brief flash of light - 
Others carry treasures
I can’t see
Or hear now

But I am not alone. 

Lament 6: Grief

I wake sulky, reluctant, 
reviewing my resentments,
lonely, yet
don’t want visitors.

Nothing satisfies:
the sun is too bright;
Our home too quiet.
I want to hide.

Another funeral -
sitting huddled within myself, 
fists clenched, trying not to listen, 
wanting to leave, shaking.

I crave -
a softening in my throat,
eyes that don’t itch,
a conversation no longer available.

Somewhere there is joy,
waiting, perhaps, to
flash through me,
again,

but now I’m grieving.
Through a window, darkly