Ebb and Flow

When night comes dropping low

Darkness weaves a blanket

round your soul,

 Unshed tears numb you

- an otherworldly lullaby

of voices you knew from eons ago

now dead but not really so.

                Strange shifting shapes

                 Nebulous, fluid, blobby

                Hushed wordless whispers

               Faint, thin, sloppy

on the bleached walls

And the vacant mind

Where only dying embers

now rub shoulders with

the spark long snuffed out

by the torment and wound

of wisdom that can 

lacerate and slash and cut

a jillion splinters and fiords

- an already mangled self.

                           Follow the footfalls?

                           Unlock the door?

                           Listen to the mumble?

                            Break the core?

Daybreak caresses the cheek

Hugs in a soft embrace

Whistles another song

Of battles lost and won

Of birdsong and sun

Of untaken roads to tread

Memories to forsake

Of homes to build

And voices to be stilled.