as far
from my memory –
a you I don’t know
is willed into life
by the lure of a flame
wrapped in illusion
of a touch long ago –
moments
no longer the same

as a partial
remembrance –
of lives passed away
love we were hoping to keep
one more day –
folded as pages
to yesterday’s dream
margins
surely to fade

saving for none
the promise of more
than a once
curs’ed vapor –
left burning before
in the recess of always
where names
have been lost –

a time
before taking
of breath
we forgot

. . .