In The Dark

Nothing Left But Ruins


1. Darkness Falling

My heart is a palace.

It shone for you:
a thousand rooms ablaze with light,
each one with treasures laid out.

Dismayed, bewildered, I watched
your anger and its minions
rampage through each room

smashing the lights, the chandeliers
and lamps, one after another.
In the heart of my heart,

in a vault you can no longer enter,
I keep a candle burning —
to read by its flickering light

books and poems of love and anguish,
to hold in my hands
the fragments of a dream,

to guard the light in my eyes
that shines still for you
however long, my love,

this night might be.


2. Darkness Fallen

First, the blare of air raid sirens
collapsing the night, collapsing love.

Then, all the lights snuffed out,
the fear, the rush to hiding places.

Finally, the rain of bombs
and my heart laid waste.

Nothing left but ruins.