Empty Passages Poem by RoseAnn V. Shawiak

Surreptitiously stealing particles of sanity, storing them
away for later dates when all have left.

Knowing there are no paths left to take, falling among broken
promises and shattered dreams, betrayed by love, lies burning
inside.

Changing times and hurried preparations, stilted conversation
amounting to nothing.

Folders of past hopes, filed in cabinets of rusted steel,
fraying around the edges, of no more use than patio furniture
in the snow.

Anticipated joys no longer will be found in life, there are
no such things.

Funeral sorrow placed around shoulders, taking away promises
of anything eternal, tomorrow's future, all has passed away,
leaving empty passages entombed underground.

Vast vertical horizons, falling from final graspings, trying
to attain a form of normalcy, failing, turned inside out and
left mourning under skies of black and gray.

Raining tears slip and fall, never touching a ceramic face,
hiding from the effects of constant abuse.