The Haunting

There is a ghost
haunting my steps.
A phantom glimmering
of a life lived well.

Possibility's wraith,
of mistakes not made,
of promises that were kept,
of betrayals not felt.

The spectre of lost hope
that cries of my despair,
born of disillusionment,
of stillborn dreams.

Opportunities squandered
and left abandoned,
only mirages casting shadows
of Technicolor holographic dreams

I am left in the ruins,
knowing only the bitterness
of unalloyed Sorrow,
sweetened by the gall
of what might have been.

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2018

Then There Was You

It is amazing, in the moment that you meet someone and realize that they fit you like a puzzle piece, One that brings the jigsaw tapestry of life into greater clarity. You mesh so smoothly with them that it is difficult to to say where one ends and the other begins. And so the relationship began...

That is what happened when I met you.

But life is never static, and the complications of our love interfered with our ability to be in contact with each other. Those challenges have become, at times, mammoth - terrifying in their Brobdaginian immensity. The miles that separate us, our duty to others, our contrasting work schedules - these all have stood in the way.

But while falling in love is something that happens to you. Loving someone is a choice, even if it is the only choice. And choosing not to love you is a choice whose consequences I never want to face - for I want you to be a persistent part of my life, as long as we can.

Some things are so precious that you would die for them, if it were necessary. That is what you are to me. Without you in my life, I would be looking at a world that was once two-dimensional, knowing that a third dimension exists because of you, but unable to perceive it any longer.

It is like having the world of sight removed, a few days after you had just gained your vision.

So, I choose you. I love you. I need you.

Lifelong, if not into the next life...

TC

(c) Tortured Cyclone 2017