Sepia Moments
Touching your profile in sepia,
Tracing my finger
Around your smile.
Bundles of letters tied with ribbon,
Frayed and faded
It hugs your words.
A tear-stained message,
Peppered with smudged pools
Of diluted ink,
Telling of your death in war.
Sixty years of tears,
Believing you loved me.
That you held me in your heart
As you breathed your last.
Pages of memories
To turn
And fold.
To mark for future return,
When dwelling and lingering
Stings like salt
Seeping into a suppurating wound.
And then, a voice whispers cruelly
Shredding those pages,
Tearing at the truth,
Erasing each word.
A chance remark reveals
You live!
You lied.
A hero in war; a coward in love.
I heard the angel who nursed you,
Whilst I grieved,
Shared your three-score years.
Whilst I held in my arms
Your sepia bundle of words
And the child you never knew.
Angela Barton
