Losing You

As the sun sinks slowly

through an ever-changing

sky, your eyes in the light

darkened, opened to reality’s bite,

cruelty of night blights the soul.

Love lost in the turning hands

unresponsive to touch, as the bland

rain constant in morning makes its

own music, washing any fragment

of dying sentiment away, to start again.

Through the years we have learned defence

strategies, coping mechanisms for loss,

the cost of emotion, the sum total

of physical pleasure, love’s expense

account hits hard, cannot be repaid.

And so the change has taken place,

your hair splayed across the pillow,

your empty arms content not to hold me,

intent on the opposite, determinedly single,

a mistake has been made, we recount our vows.