Undying Embers

By Thomas Thottungal

Two score years have ebbed away

In extreme slow motion

Second by searing second.

Where she is now I haven’t a clue

Nor what has become of her.

But the memory is young as yesterday

Of two years of torrid romance.

Knowing even as it bloomed

It was destined to be doomed,

Yet we loved with a passionate frenzy

That was as blind as it was fervid.

Then one day as I knew she would

She married someone

Somewhere

And was gone.

I didn’t care to check

Who or where.

What use was there?

The night before she tied the knot

I gave her a little diamond ring

That cost me all I’d got.

Then I held her close,

And then I let her go,

Never to see again

Never to hear.

Two score years,

But there’s still a void

I can never hope to fill

Nor ever want to fill.

The pain lingers on

Like some burning ember

The surface glow gone,

Dimmed by the passage of time,

While deep down at the core of me

The pain pulsates still,

And with it, memories

Of the long ago and the far away.

By Thomas Thottungal