Portrait

** Image ID #2233407 Unavailable **

Portrait

In the brief time you were here
I painted your image in my imagination,
captured the essence of your eyes so deep,
caressed your bloodless lips, your pallid skin,
caught the flowing mane of your hair
in my darkest tone, that sable hue,
ran my fingers through its deathly tresses
so that it poured beyond the frame,
the paint yearning to be free from bounds.
It hangs upon the wall of my intent,
eternal vision of my vigil maintained
in awaiting your return. I hung a light bulb,
yellowed and dim (it was all I had),
to illuminate your morbid features,
sullied by the dirt of my remembrance,
and to echo within the yawning void
created by your abandonment of me.
My tortured soul, though held in abject loss,
subject to pangs of deprivation unspeakable,
still clings in resolution to the hope,
nay, the knowledge, that your absence ever
is temporary, that some day, one day,
the surgeon’s skill will weaken and fade
and you’ll come back to me from life
to death.


Line Count: 25
Free Verse
For Dark Dreamscapes Poetry Contest, October 2020 Week 3
Prompt: As per illustration.