The Whiskey Taster’s Flavor Guide

I'D Burn

Specters cast along the wall
What I'd give to lose it all
As I see your shadow in the mirror
Everything becomes so clear
And I can only hope to see
Your face once more shining
In twilight
'Neath the ashen leaves in fall
But all becomes a shade of flame
Our names carved in an old oak tree
That long ago burned into ash
I only wish that I had seen
The wildfire as it found that bark
And intertwined the leaves' destruction
With such dark hurts of my memory

But no, I lie here thinking how
I can not hope now
For you are my memory
The image I will never see again
Perfection of ideals past
And cast in their destruction

Here, beneath the ashes of the old oak tree
I see my memories of how you'd wept
Before the light faded
   I'd held you in my arms
As your charred soul and body
Find their rest amongst the leaves
So slowly smouldering

How dearly I regret those days
Spent striking tinder, flint and steel
So many ways we wished that we were real
I still remember
As we found a spark
When we were young
We fade away when leaves become this ash
At last
So at the foot of this mountaing
   Where we used to play
   When we were young
I cast your ashes to the wind
   And pray now, dust to dust
   That this is not
What we've become
Copyright © | Year Posted 2005

Poem

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The Whiskey Taster’s Flavor Guide
Book: Diverse Voices: The Poetry of Human Rights and the Pursuit of Peace