Fade

I admit that I’m forgetting

Every day, a little more

Just how much we loved each other

That we thought we were forever

That you were ever there at all.

Too much water in the pigment

Makes the colours flee the page

Gem-vivid turns pastel-pale

Images blurred by distance

Should have been blurred by old age.

One day this mind will not remember

How the lines on your palms looked

The dust-specked canvas of your skin

Warmth of hair under my hand

Petal-velvet of your lips

This flesh will not know how you held me

And was strong when I was not

And the seas we saw together

And the laughter (lots of laughter)

Contentment precedes resentment

A chilly stranger wore your face

I loved the stranger to distraction

And lost myself along the way.

Though in truth I think the fade began

When we were still together

Side-by-side, crept up our ankles

Seeped into our words and actions

So we no longer saw with clarity

Now obscured, filled with dark smoke

The other’s crystal soul.

For all that I have lost, I do not hope to gain-

Replacing silver memories, a drowsy shroud of pain.