Against Darkness (Again: Starkness) Poem by Joe Fraccalvieri

I have looked into the eyes of the future
past tears of hopes and fears
beyond the pain and sorrow
and the promise of tomorrow
all watermarked with the reign of years

And there... Beneath each precious moment...
Between each breath of time...
I saw her, looking back in silence,
from worlds of words and rhyme

Her left hand held the planets
spinning around the sun
and I saw the stars in the heavens
twinkling-- one by one
And then I watched as they fell from the sky
until, near the end-- there were none

In her right hand were my thoughts...
My faults... My lies... My schemes...
But she clutched these in a caged fist
allowing my truths, my cries, my screams
to come sifting through like the morning mist
turning sleep into a bed of dreams

And her soul held back the darkness
which lay ready to come crashing in...
Her body... Like a temple... So perfect...
Permitting all through the door except sin

And she stood there alone-- like an infant
holding my world in the light of her eyes
She stood there... For only an instant...
Molding the world at the sight of our lives
She stood there... A lonely monument
with secrets kept behind lips sewed tight
they could only have been from a kind of love
which survives so completely, and so right

And so she stood there... In the distance...
Stood there... In sheer delight...
When suddenly her needs
like seeds in her hands
were hurled with such passion
unfurled with such might
that she showed me compassion
by the strength of her love
creating a day from a pinpoint of light

She stood there...
As though all of Forever, and Heaven above
had occurred in the space
of one single, bright night

And she stood there... Just stood there....
Still......................................