These are testing times

These are testing times

When the strength of our resolve

Is weakened by the lessening

Of our hold on each other.

As reality picks away at

The barely healed scars

Of yesterday,

Drawing fresh blood

From stony hearts,

Pebble dashed souls

Skim the surface,

Fearing the depths

They dance above.

But we do not shirk,

Just pause to brush

Stardust from bleary eyes

And look to seek

A remnant

Of what was once so easily seen

Sculptured in the lustre

And passion of life,

Now hidden

By a deepening confusion.

A veil that blankets

The fragile spirit

Within its stealthy confines.

Bleeding life away

Even as it keeps the cold at bay.

Hands,

Though tightly grasped

Still fail to wrest the slide.

Even as we wait,

The low-light dimming

As darkness draws in,

Dampening the waxwork flame,

Dowsing me

In the wretched stench

Of death’s old breath

As its knife-edged shadow

Stops mid progress

In the inevitability

Of its unhurried

Passing over.