Memento

Our wishes tattooed on my membrane mind, Silver nitrate of love with womankind, While we lazed in the lap of a springtime dream, Of our futures baptised in a sunlit stream. The mill wheel turned the canvas sail That caught the wheat-germ breeze, Our youth played tag with fleeting hours, And the daily grind sauntered with ease. We were young, hedonistic, transcending mistakes, Marking the time with treasured keepsakes: A memento toy of the primal birth, Of flowers plucked from out the earth, Of poems read at close of day, Of breakfast tea we poured away, Of worlds that turned in hearts of gold, Of holiday junk and wine grown old, And a vault to lock the future in As houseplants bloomed, year out, year in; ‘Till a dark red void gaped cold and still, An empty space we could not fill. Our dreams engraved on each tangle and plaque By midnight chisels enamelled black, While we laboured in lungs of winter breath, Our beings resisting treaties with death. The last of the laughter dying away, Like a gallows ghost in the air And Old Father Time with his sand dancing steps Had crept…whilst we slept…unaware…