I thought I saw you laid out cold and still -
Pale and nerveless, with ice for your blood.
And then a voice spoke, saying "Love is dead,
So nothing ever more can be for good."
Shocked out of sleep, wide-eyed with bone-cold fear
I gasped for air, and knew it for a dream.
I cast around for you, but you weren't near.
And I recalled the miles that stand between.
I know you'll never leave me by your will
But grim mortality makes ash of oaths.
What promise can compel Time to stand still,
Or force dry Sorrow to respect our troth?
Yet even though Death has us in his sights,
I'll choose to love, and dance in Death's despite.
(August 2001)