Damp weather

my bones and emotions hurt

seeing children

on their way

home from school

Drags mismatched

unharmonious threads

from the centuries

and living deaths since then

Some sparkling memories

shine thru

Kaleidoscope

Shattered shadows

bouncing off

echoing walls

joined by

a jaded smile

So I crawl into

my slowly fading wife’s

hospital bed

and when she knows I’m there

she sweetly delicately holds onto me

I close my eyes

and see a tunnel

with no light at the end

my silent salty secret tears

pool into

a bittersweet picture

of things

both past and yet to be

that are

never meant to last