Jewel's Nest

in all the Deep of Night

when even stars have gone to bed

Black like the lining of a jewel box after the jewel is gone

Dead Black

no supporting contrast gleam

of diamond

emerald

topaz

ruby

Fathomless Black

the sad outcome of drownings  

smotherings

loss of all that was known in Life

that passage that no one has breached on the way back

to let us know what lies Beyond the Dark

so many times I lie and watch you sleep

your chest rising  

yes! and yes!

each inhalation a miracle that keeps us joined

for long and long

I hear your muttered dreamings

touch and taste your skin like angel wings

so softly you never know

give thanks each night for the miracle

that came to us both in later times

when cynicism Might have been expected

to dull our knowledge and acceptance of True Love

years unknown to each other

breeze in ghostly tatters

behind a constant testimony

that there were other lives before We Were

some aspects gone and missed

some gone, not missed at all  

it’s Dark

in all the Deep Deep Black of Night

the Starless Hole that swallows Universes beckons

as I pull away and confront the mirror

only to see my Grandmother

Not my Grandmother

but I

so she was

her honey golden skin paled and mottled

russet hair now silvered down and thinner

than once exuberant curls

her youthful ebullience

studied insouciance

weathered to a leathery acceptance

of limits never Dreamed of in her youth

a time when we walked Hard upon the earth

Knowing we were the First people of consequence

to arrive

that we would ever be remembered

as the Healers of Mankind

not having come yet to the conclusion

that the very Word

Erased

over half of the species so designed

that, Now, am i

standing at the edge of the Void

still knowing and loving

still thinking and striving

on the border of “going gentle” and Raging

into the Night, the Eternal

where each one’s footsteps go alone

the other side of the Dark

ever Unknown

save only met in Blazing Love  

as i have felt with you

the Circle completed

the jewel Dancing Fire

at the core of the Darkness

            like Life unending

© 2020 pamela twining