Sanctuary Poem by Amy Sutton

We meet more like strangers,
Hollow skulls in the melting candle flames.
Splintered eyes glance through the rippling air,
And we turn away.

Angels linger at the doors,
Watching the misted horizon,
And listening through
The death knell of the rain.
You shift between shadows.
I kneel in false meditation.
The unspoken question
Reverberates.

The distant whine
Of bloodthirsty machinery
Wends through the rain
And sets the window panes trembling.
I breathe in.
I breathe out.

And then
Your weathered hand
Is on my shoulder.
I look up at your smile
And see in each line a younger man
From a hundred lazy summer days
Before the world taught us to grow.

You do not speak.
But I know.
I remember you once told me
That our lives are too short
For petty grudges.
Far, far too short, my love.

You kneel beside me,
And we pray together.
Outside, the metal army advances.