Fragments from a long time ago...

I

Time goes by,

People shed their previous selves like moulting skin-

Old letters are burnt and windows are opened after days -

The world outside unsettles the layers of dust, Someone sneezes,

The naked lightbulb flickers and then dies.

The wooden floorboard has rotted with neglect and where the flowers grew now moss creeps through the cracks. The light slowly fades in the west and silences seep through the damp. My vision grows hazy and the heart feels numb.

II

Indeed time goes by,

I never hear from you now...

You never speak to me in my dreams,

The neighbour's children have outgrown their shoes,

and you have forgotten your friends.

Somedays I forget to sleep,

The heart is weary of waiting,

The clockface is made of sheer stone.

III

Your face seems but a distant memory

and your voice a hallucination from the past.

I hold on to the pen and the parchment you brought for me from Egypt,

for I lack the courage to throw them in the bin.

They keep me company for when the missing starts

and threatens to swallow me whole.