LUMINOUS

Luminous and brooding,

there was only

the silence of many years of conversations to comfort us now,

tiny jewels in a chest now locked away tight

as we exchange the few empty words that are left.

We felt meditative, ending in serenity--still and exquisite, momentarily brilliant--admiring but admonishing the unstained light hanging

like a gauzy and radiant fabric over the gloom of a decade of struggle.

We became somber, seeing the approach of the last rays of light,

sinking low and slowly shifting to a dull red,

without heat,

and falling beyond the horizon,

about to go out suddenly

and leave us in darkness.

With acknowledgement to Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.