Drawn To Black

Wreathed in silence, laid down in shades
Swathed in regrets, deluded astray
Forgotten in half-light, drawn in despair
Soothed in slumber so dreadful and fair.

Rending and searing and twisting my dreams
Alone in the gloom with the nightmares unseen.

The night has a thousand eyes
And the day but one
Yet the light of the bright world dies
With the dying sun.

The mind has a thousand eyes
And the heart but one
Yet the light of a whole life dies
When love is done.

Worthless the pledges, all vows but lies
Fateful her kisses, where a serpent hides
First beckoned to step from the twilight to glare
Then left in the dark for the demons to share.

Only the stars see, only the moon hears.

And quietly the water-lilies sigh
Like the last breath of a weary soul
And the weed sway in the dreary waters
Like a girl's dark hair they wave about.

And the black stones under my bare feet
Cold and smooth like her milk-white palm
And the silence which falls upon this shore
Resounds now louder than oncoming storm.

For all is gone.