Requiem for a Dream

Empty hands clutch warm wood
and gently caress the imagined bow
along taut illusory strings,
playing with deceptive skill a requiem

to those who have passed, interred
into the cold, wet hands of dark earth.
Humbly, bowing to an honoured friend.

Swirling notes, a sombre chant
enriched with memories that are tinged
with the deepest aching pangs of sadness.
Misery surges from the throb and hum of the hymn.

Vacant eyes stare, remembering those other eyes,
also vacant, also empty, mindless pain
lingering behind the wretched fog of blindness.

Harsh strokes echo the anguish of every heartbeat,
the anger at life’s injustice - just as the mad king knelt
in grief, screaming to the gods’ tempest, for thou
has no breath at all! Sadness lingers in the slow

deep final notes, resigned to mourn forever.
Fate’s last laugh, his twisted cruelty - every
shadow turned to has thy face.

Slightly Obsessive