Goodbye, My Beloved

He was kneeling all alone in the graveyard

 

Keeping vigil at her final resting place

 

Paying his last respects to his beloved one now gone

 

His tears were falling freely on her headstone

 

His voice rising to the heavens as he cried aloud in anguish

 

Why?

 

Why was she the one to go?

 

Memories of the love they once shared came rushing in upon his mind

 

Those tender kisses and sweet caresses

 

All their shared hopes and fragile dreams

 

He could still see her golden hair shining in the sunlight

 

Hear her glorious laughter bubbling out with delight

 

Gaze into her vibrant eyes that showed such love for him

 

Thunder crashed suddenly above him

 

Shattering all his sweet reveries

 

Brought him back to the days of blackness

 

Demanded he remember only the pain and loss

 

Rain came pouring down from the heavens

 

As if to drive him from her side

 

Forcing the bond that once was, now to break

 

The man fell prostrate to the earth

 

Clung tightly to the headstone

 

Vowing to weather the storm with her

 

Tried to shield her from the pelting raindrops

 

Regrets burst in upon him like a flood

 

Washing away the golden memories of before

 

In his mind’s eye now he saw her

 

A fragile frame laid upon a bed of suffering

 

Her dancing eyes now dull and vacant

 

Those golden strands turned frail and gray

 

Moans of pain replacing laughter that once had been

 

Gone were the tender kisses and sweet caresses

 

Replaced now with confused looks and repeated questions

 

Who was he?

 

Had they ever met before?

 

He pleaded with love for her to remember

 

Begged her to recall

 

Told her over and over the story of their love

 

Sat by her side for hours on end

 

Holding her hand in his as long as he could

 

But death was determined to break them apart

 

It would not hear of a love enduring forever

 

With cruel hands, it robbed his beloved of her health

 

Turned her memories into madness

 

Blinded her to the sight of him

 

The one she had always called her husband

 

And he had to sit there silently

 

Hold his tongue and allow death to have its way

 

His oft shed tears were to no avail

 

Begging for mercy fell on deaf ears

 

Death was ready to snatch her away

 

Eager to have her as its prey

 

And on a beautiful autumn morn

 

She slipped away from him without a word

 

Her very last breath he never e’en heard

 

When his eyes once heavy with slumber finally opened

 

He saw what death had done

 

Stolen his beloved wife away

 

Leaving him the heavy price of unbearable grief to pay

 

Now here he was in the graveyard

 

All alone facing a life without her by his side

 

If he could have saved her from the grave she now was in

 

How he would have relentlessly tried

 

The rain that once fell round him now ceased

 

Thunder no more sounded in the skies

 

A glimmer of sunlight streamed out from behind the dark clouds

 

Resting briefly on her headstone

 

With trembling fingers, he traced the graven words

 

Brushed away a few minute specks of dirt

 

And pressed his lips to the cold headstone

 

The only kiss he could give her now

 

He straightened the beautiful flowers laying upon the grave

 

Slowly rose from kneeling on the cold wet ground

 

Reached for his worn wooden cane lying close beside

 

And painfully rising with unsteadiness to his feet

 

He dared to take one last look behind

 

And heavily, so heavily he sighed

 

Whispered with trembling lips and tears

 

Goodbye, my beloved