Barbara: Ghazal

                            Loss

The petrified door still shudders, slammed when he had gone.

The echoes of our shouting are fading now, are gone.

The music swells, heartbreaking, the melancholy song

Will end too soon, too sudden, its strains forgotten, gone.

As eastern light breaks slowly, and softly glows the dawn,

The night retreats to shadows.  The dark’s defeated.  Gone.

The sinking sun is burning, a beaten galleon
That fires its last salvo when hope of glory's gone.

I don’t remember August.  December lasts too long.

Can May's return be trusted, when memory has gone?

Old age creeps on one slowly, it settles down upon

A body frail and brittle, blood leeching, heartbeat gone.

She’s left again, heart broken, alone she can’t go on

A pistol severs silence, and Barbara’s pain is gone.