BENCHED

Girl Friday, fitful slumbered
crumpled upon hard bed 
of ashen timber 
angular unslept against 
memories etched into the grain
hollow distant laughter echoing
when love first bloomed.
Now bowing sentinel pines 
and the overhead screech
of sun startled starlings
stir the swarm of shadows
across a tattered heart.

Silent pleas mutely scream
as she lay dead as the driftwood
beneath her unflailing, withered limbs
beseeching bewildered wooden
witnesses in rhododendron 
and hushed horse chestnuts
to utter unction prayers 
for rescue, for renewal against 
drip drying summer's light
as early autumn rays turn watery
and sun leaks broken egg yolk
as river tears run out of flow
freeze in their tracks
streak like chicken feet scratches
across a desert face 
pallid and dreading deep
the toll of winter's knell.