ETERNITY

                              The dark spread its cloak of smiling stars

                             Glittering like magical lights

                             The moon waned behind the clouds

                             She seemed to be hiding........

                             Shying away from my thoughts

                             The wing moaned, the shadowy branches groaned

                             Tuning a doleful song

                             That of a pining heart

Like the shepherd Endymion

                             And the Goddess Artemis

                             She was the soul and I.... the light

                             But God! Which God would do us apart?

Having brought despair

    He caught us in a tide

                            Taking my beloved away from my eyes

                             Leaving me the cold, lonely, barren shore

For there she lay, my Artemis

                             Beside the jagged rocks

                             A withered lotus, wasted but free

                             To the song of the sea

                             Its spray upon her virgin mounts

                             Were but blessing from above

                             To cleanse her from sin

                             Upon her last rites

                              Her eyes closed, her lips sealed

                                                She slept serene

                                               Oh! So tranquil

                            Away from the flashes

                                                 The hard stares

                          Of both young and old

                          From far and near

                           Cast upon her nakedness

                              What claws had sunken deep

                             Deep enough to scar her?

                             With hunger pangs

That forced itself to devour her

                             Off her sweetness and innocence?

                             Questions! Questions! Nothing but questions

unanswered!

                             Filled the void

                             In broad daylight

         Nature the witness, judge and jury

                         To an enigmatic moment

                          When she breathed her last

                           Unable to speak

                           Unable to reveal

                           The mystery concealed

                           The ugly truth

                           Surrounding her motionless form          

I looked at the rippling waters

                        And stared at the floating lotus

                        Tears dropped like trickles on its snowy-white petals

                         And as it drifted away from my life forever

                          I returned the downcast soul,

                           The forlorn figure

                           To the Tomb

                           My home, for ETERNITY

THE END