The soles of lonely feet fill cold shoes
Sadly left to themselves
After such warm tenderness
Seems to have gone
Out of style
And sleeping alone
Becomes unwelcome
Unfashionable
A solitary sadness
Uninvited and hurting.
The faces of time turn their arms
Downwards from days
Into long nightmares
The favorite smiles
Left to linger in personal agony
Hours upon hours
Faltering footsteps
On loosely worn bridges
That once connected
Lovers now separated.
Shadows don’t depart lonely souls
They only elongate them
On sunny days
They imitate silent melancholy
Lingering in the dark
As the moon embarks
On its voyage in the night
So does my heart
Takes its leave to go
Wherever your love resides.
Must I retire to solitary sadness
And shiver in shallow waters
Falling on asphalt streets
Painting lonely walls
And disappear upon my pillow?
This dilapidated body
This derelict vessel
Aches for your loving arms
Your undivided shore
To lie together in dreams.
Copyright © 2022 Charles Edward York
No part of this poem may be used or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any way or form or by any means electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise without the written permission of the author.*