--- A Shame and A Sorrow ---

By John Herlihy

One could call it a shame.

Where to apportion blame,

When it has no true name?

Sorry it happened, so bad;

Nothing will happen, so sad.

Let’s take a closer look.

There it lay before us,

Or rather not before us.

The fact a reality in absence,

Left behind, melancholy silence.

Shame always raises questions.

Where had all the love gone?

Why did it take its leave?

How did it all go so wrong,

With no hope for reprieve?

Love is a knife-edge,

The blade with two sides.

The union sealed by pledge,

Suspicion and doubt divides,

Absence and loss now guides.

And this leads me to sorrow,

There to take love’s place.

When I awaken on the morrow,

Traces now on my unlined face,

Seeking refuge in this empty space.

Sorrow now a kind of escape,

More effected than expected.

If love is a mystery on the make,

Sorrow makes me feel protected.

At least, what I feel isn’t fake.

A shame and a sorrow,

Hungry wolves hard to recognize.

Tell-tale signs there to borrow,

Raw emotions in true r guise,

To fill the gap when love dies.

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(c) John Herlihy 15 November 2018