Once Were Nevermore Poem by Linda Marie Van Tassell

You came back into my life broken,
pieced together, half-shell of a man,
speaking words never before spoken
with the semblance of a sacristan.
Your words were a desperate echo,
a hollow heart with the ring of truth.
I wanted to believe so let go
of the harbingers that stained our youth.

My love for you blossomed - blissful, bright.
I loved you so hard and without shame,
tried to fix the wrongs and make them right.
The song of my soul was in your name.
Your smile, your eyes, and your handsome face
were dearer to me than my own breath.
In every part of me, I can trace
a pathway straight to you, life and death.

Looking back, I can see I was wrong.
You were one of the great unmended.
I loved you too hard and stayed too long;
and finally, this love is ended.
We are whispers, once were nevermore,
two birds flailing in a winter sky
with weak wings dampened forevermore
by the rain that falls from heaven's eye.