Memory’s Shadow (Full Original) – 2008

I watched him:
His normally smiling eyes
Puddled behind curved glass.

Around the room,
Hands and lips trembled;
Legs tapped their restless feet.

Thin white hair, fluffed out for false volume,
Covered the drooping diamond earrings
She kept solely for a gathering like this.

Hearts pounded to the faltering voice;
Thumbs twitched and fidgeted;
Heads bowed down in prayer.

He held his hand gently to his mouth
And I could feel his lungs emptying out
As his body seized forward in a sob.

His eyes never moved, save to blink,
From the picture at the front of the room.
They stayed their pleading gaze ahead
Into the face of undying love.

Now a photograph in a picture frame
Holds her body as he wish he could:
Forever and unfailing, like
The shadows of our fading memories.

So how do you say goodbye to a shadow?