irrevocable loss

midnight hair, cascades 

(is caught)

flush against alabaster skin,

blood red lips bloom with sudden ferocity

in their bed of purest white, so they stand

as stark as fire - caught within nights place.

azure pools, uncertain, questioning,

bleed their colour down virgin cheeks

carving lines of loss and love, and

catching mornings light:

flaming and sparking in each sob.

such sudden, sad, and awful beauty

catches at this now flat heart.

so that now, even across the many years

and paths and unforeseen changes that

life has laid before my tired feet,

this picture lingers still, perhaps

caught within some ebb of memory,

flotsam (seemingly forever) anchored 

to my perception of irrevocable loss.