‘The silence was heavy with eternity’
(Rose Tremain, Sacred Country)
The room vibrated an empty sound,
My fingers brushed the thin new dust
And I turned around and round
In the hall where we’d played, a wedding gown,
Its hem the colour of rust,
The room vibrated, an empty sound
Downstairs were coins, scattered, a spinning pound,
Your things in little hills; upended by a gust,
And I turned around and round
Was there a residue of you, trodden on the ground?
I couldn’t smell you anymore — your distinctive floral musk,
The room vibrated, an empty sound
On the mantle, that clock we found,
It chimed on the half-hour, as such clocks must,
And I turned around and round
My loss of you an unhealing wound,
This world feels so unjust,
The room vibrated an empty sound,
And I turned around and round.
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