"When I think you're somewhere yonder,

dark penumbra, so benumbing

—back again! and by my bedside

hunched to mock with: 'Trouble coming!'"

i hear a pin drop   hear my heart pound

my sense of time is askew   this is new

my fingers   they tremble   something is wrong

was it always this way   i feel myself slipping   

out of control   nothing to hold 

caught in vortex   a whirlpool   that is   

going under   arising downstream   

it flows   the stream   the dream   

this is how it goes   where it goes

where color fades to black and white

[cue thunder and lightning   dramatic   but brief   soliloquy]

i thought we'd be forever

her eyes indicate something else

[color returns]   

i look about the room one last time

wicker furniture   white   

trim on her bedspread   fabric of her chair   pink

this from memory

slant moonlight illuminates her face   

sheet and quilt pulled to her chin

eyes yet bright

i remember the glint

on her bed-table   tender is the night

i rise from the side of her bed 

where i have lain   been intimate

but this night i sit

i thought we would be forever

but i was wrong   i was wrong

could hear a pin drop   hear my heart pound