The Place of Grief

[carose59]

The Place of Grief

When I woke
in the day's gray gloom
     I found myself
             absolved of color,  weight,  depth; 
    nothing but a silhouette that ate the light.
                           Dusk incarnate.
I could mingle with the shadows and not be seen;
       consort with ghosts.
Feed upon the grief that grew there like nightshade--
        vines and leaves
     flowers and berries
     filling the corners,
climbing the wallpaper, 
                            small smoky dragon fiends.
She could not see  me;
         had not seen me for some time.
       I had slipped
                     from sunlight to eclipse,
    and now, in this twilight dream,
       I could stand right inside her shadow,
                                  touch her sorrow
                               breathe her grief and tears.

                           I wear her mourning;
                        live with her here unseen--
                        in neither purgatory nor limbo
                             but a monochrome eternity
 longing for daybreak

 waiting for night.