How Do I Tell You That I Love You

How do I tell you "I love you", when all that's left to listen is a cloud? And the tempest has blown away, all that our hands built. How do I get answers to my questions.. The ones pleaded, and prayed, and begged for.. Why you, why me, why now? How do I reach out my hand, to a shadow, that holds no warmth. Your loveliness, found now only in portraits, or, perhaps, from an old recording. How do I say to you, who is no longer swayed, by a cold morning, noon bright, nor moon filled night, that you are loved, still. Now bathed in sunlight, the marble remains so cool.... A few coins adorn your place of rest. I wish you could spend them all. In vows you promised to be mine, in good times and in bad, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. But who will be there to take care of me, in sickness and in health? I will hold true the vow, "to love and honor you all the days of my life." Taken now forever, from your sweet song, lingering only in pitiful loss. To toil through life now left, to visit, in a garden of stones. -Dedicated to my father, who outlived two wives.