How Many Good-Byes? Poem by Lora Colon

Why do I sit by the window
Remembering what I should forget;
The ghost of your love likes to taunt me -
It lays in the place you once slept

When you extinguished love's fire,
I tried to rekindle the flame;
At times, I still deny the truth,
But tears that I shed bear your name

Let me cry, do not comfort me,
To temper this pain, I must learn;
I filled the midnight lamp with oil,
But now, for whom will it burn?

My trembling hands I raised to heaven,
And I brought the storm clouds down;
I prayed the rain might comfort me,
Then peace would come circling 'round

But your haunting voice still echoes
In the chambers of these empty halls;
O, how many good-byes must repeat
Before the blessed silence falls!