TALISMAN

I have wrapped myself in tokens of you,

Each an elemental of your memory,

Your teacup used ten times a day,

Your crosses around my neck,

Your images everywhere,

My room a temple to your memory.

 

All these new skins layered up,

Onion fashion,

to cover the searing pain…

The scar of your passing.

And now, I begin to remove

these talisman, these familiars.

 

Gently, one at a time,

I take away these band-aid patches,

Not swiftly like the instruction,

Everything is cloaked in magical mantras,

Everything is sacred to me…

But that way lies madness.

 

My soul is cleaved,

halved by your passing,

And I know that this is my lot now,

I cannot replenish that which is missing,

You await on the otherside,

Ans I am locked in this destiny.

 

So, as I put away the vestments,

One by one, fearful I will lose you,

I know in my heart that,

Your earthly elementals have gone,

I scattered them in the waters,

I shared them with the flames,

I put them to the wind,

They settle in the Earth.

 

Every part of your  eternal flame,

Is inside my heart,

It is not in your image,

In your cup,

In your jewellery,

But in my soul.

 

DALE BELOVED OF ‘M’