Faded Photographs Poem by Barry Middleton

faded photographs and paper memories
are somehow all that's left behind
a life's tokens are few

youth thinks the loss of love is greatest
they cannot know death's call
when even the soul is lost

that soul contains a lifetime's memories
not just the few words I leave
not images of youth

there is no flash of life before my eyes
the memories trail and drift
like autumn leaves

I've had too much of time remembered
too much of hope and spring
too much recalled

for this is surely the greatest of agonies
to look ahead and see death
and to hear its silence