Ashes & Ruin

A Year of Sonnets — 065/365

Photo by Yoni Kozminsi on Unsplash

Perhaps your light is lost and everything
is ashes, thick upon a tired tongue,
your body broken: lung and breast and wing,
even your voice: you lost the song you sung,
the open chords anointing golden skin
diminishing, they echo past your ears.
You hope another song will soon begin,
but silence falls, encouraging the fears
that brand their colors on your beating heart,
delighting in the twist of agony
and every twinge — you pull your ribs apart
trying to set malignant spirits free.
Or not — the nightmare fades to simple dreams;
the horror fades away on dying screams.