If I close my eyes

If I close my eyes

Nobody will see me.

Like a child

Who crawls beneath a table,

Lies in the space

Between the sofa

And the wall,

Spreads their fingers

Wide, in an attempt

To hide their face

Away from the world,

I will be missed.

Nothing will happen.

The haunting

Will pass on by.

The fear that visits

All who know love,

The dread of loss,

Might keep moving.

In its blind

Indifference to suffering,

Its slithering trail,

Sticky with

The sap

Of lives, crushed.

Smothered,

Suffocated,

By the inevitability

Of its infernal

Constriction.

Sliding from one to another,

Delivering its poison.

Never wavering,

From its endeavour,

Or waiting

To see the consequence

Of its action.

Dry husks,

Where once the juice

Of love flowed.

It will find you,

Eventually.

The more you love

The more you lose.

But in living

There is loving,

Or there is nothing.

The haunting

Will still find you.

It will

Hang you out to dry.

A reminder

For all eternity,

That life

Without love

And the fear of loss,

Is no life at all.