Grief

Both food and drink lie forgotten,
The needs of life abandoned, rotten.
Why is it that times gone by,
When gazed upon, are so awry?
Now pain grows rampant, uncontested,
All remaining resistance bested.
Years sat upon without a smile,
At breaking point, mirth only erstwhile,
Prayers for hope and bliss ignored,
Until life seems to reach an accord.
The heart's desires but a grasp away,
No knowledge you've been led astray,
A forest nurtured for time abound,
Solely for fate to leave it drowned.
Languishing in purgatory
Holds no candle to the furore
Brought about, without a warning
By events worth years of mourning.
Nightmares held close but not believed,
Leaving oneself fully deceived,
As fiction becomes reality,
No description a hyperbole.
Left in pieces, shattered, broken,
Sufficient words could n'er be spoken
To assist in understanding
Such a trauma so outstanding.
A mask is worn hereinafter,
Born of fabricated laughter,
A façade of poise and strength,
Yet emotions held at an arms length.
Endeavour to forge ever onward?
Simply a poorly concealed falsehood;
For success is inconceivable,
Any escape imperceivable.
Certain matters are too harrowing,
Agonising, dire, sorrowing,
Not e'en time makes well the torment,
Relief will fail to make its advent.
Surrendered joy remains at sea,
Locked away with no matching key,
No kiss goodbye, a shock farewell,
Given no omen or death knell.
That which was once joyous, vibrant,
As if crushed by a mighty tyrant,
Left godforsaken, deserted, dead,
A hymn unsung, a book unread,
A candle never lit, unburned,
A lesson never taught, unlearned.
Shards and debris of the past
Lie untouched, and at long last
The toil against the grief ends here,
Carried by the current o'er the weir.