To Quote the Raven

Sadness, corrosive and debilitating, seeps into my marrow

The vituperative silence usurps all joy

leaving a hollow quiet in its wake

Devoid of life my empty soul lingers on

Echoes of long abandoned promises whisper through the tatters

reminding me of what never will be

So close I once was

but, to quote the raven, nevermore

This vast wasteland that was my life

uninhabitable even for ghosts

crumbles under the onslaught of nothingness

Bit by bit, I died

my spirit leeched away by the waiting

What should have been a constant

shattered and lost, tossed carelessly to the four corners

Now so distorted it is unrecognizable

Never to be reformed

Never to be missed

To quote the raven, nevermore

Disappointment rumbles like distant thunder

Each new hurt a shaft of lightening scorching the blackened embers that were my soul

Where hope had blossomed

with a tentative toehold in need of tender nurturing

Now crushed under the weight of neglect

Extinct from recklessness

Lost forever

To quote the raven, nevermore