Periphery

On a path laid as a snake, Trodden down a winding wake, Curls and slithers into night, To thrones of ever-dimming light; I hold still and gripped with feeling In a mist that wraps concealing, And I glimpse her flicker by From the corner of my eye. Heartless granite fissures break At prayers to God of souls to take, In their vessels bled to white, Shells of failure and of blight; It snares and snags as ivy veins, Upon the brickwork, grasps and strains, And I catch her ribbons fly From the corner of my eye. Set adrift in this domain, The dead volcanoes that refrain, Never smoking nor erupt For the end was sharp, abrupt; I feel the ether of despair Envelope skin with frosted air, I spot the crystals melt and die From the corner of my eye. No space for sorrow to explain, To tell how love was savaged, slain, The stir of breath can bare disrupt Or wall of silence interrupt; A fear of days, in truth, compare With nights that always hunger there, Unguarded moments, her I spy From the corner of my eye.