"Glimpse" by Alessio Zanelli

Glimpse

Alessio Zanelli 

"Never Be" Graphite on Paper
By J. Artemus Gordon

She came to us

like rays of light to leafage,

drops of dew agleam on the grass,

now instead of never.

A prodigy,

a glint of tints

renewing day by day,

and growing, growing to perfection.

It seemed that nothing

could ever interfere,

hinder or bring that bloom to a stop.

No drought, no darkness, no break in time.

Our present distilled out of dreams.

But time is a devourer of successive ticks,

sheer, indistinct, elusive nows:

days, or years, exist in our minds,

like all illusions reach an end.

Sun and rain ensued for us to enjoy,

till grayness fell.

Shadows writhed, stretched, merged.

Nothing then re-emerged.

And we realized

it had been just a fleeting glow,

we’d been allowed a simple glimpse.

And it was through.

And she, and we, and all.

Poet’s Notes:  The miracle of unexpected life, then the ineffable tragedy of sudden, premature loss--too much for any poet to make a sensible poem. I tried though. The couple that suffered this loss, close friends of mine, still hasn’t recovered after quite a few years.