A winter's sunset

@uootem

the prolonged shadows of sunset follow me
lingering like yesterday's hopes and dreams
as her words still continue to echo in my hearing
amongst the resolute mountain faces of imagination
they hang limp in the air, like the many scents of autumn
entangled in the mist that carries the evening toward the horizon.

memories dot the virgin landscape of tomorrow
like so many footprints in freshly fallen snow
that fades where ice crusts on a silent pond.
there is somber beauty in the redolence of this season
wisps of smoke from a distant chimney, climbing lazily
but soon disappear amidst the laughter of the coldest wind.

the lonely future of this night haunts me, ill-prepared
conscious of, yet oblivious to distractions and digressions left behind
as I realize that love must be all about tomorrow,
for it is no longer anchored in yesterday.
recollections of love as it once was shared
seeps timidly through the barren gardens of regret.

here I sit and watch the gardener rake away the remnants of autumn
as lost love memory's cobwebs collect, dangle useless like so many leaves
there must be a higher purpose for this feeling,
I must believe as once again I write nearly in tears
love is about tomorrow, but perhaps nothing more than futile hope
I realize that this is true as words slip through my fingers

... and become a poem.