The Shadows Still Fall
…in my hollow soul
You beckoned to me
with an outstretched hand
and like a moth to a flame
I reached for you
the stars spilled silver
on the curves of the sea
and the gentle waves
danced back and forth
in moonlit revelry
hidden in shimmering veils
of endlessly shifting mists
we danced for hours
in this mysterious place
to the raucous, yet enticing
songs of a ghostly band
whose fiddlers played
on the thin threads
of fragile spider webs
but in the end
all would be revealed
a thousand lanterns gently hung
each one a soul that lingers here
I saw myself in silhouette
dancing all alone
my wild trembling steps
another dark reminder
of my heart’s undoing
I was once again
that frightened child
forever trapped
in a recurring dream
every night I walked alone
I held a seashell
and it sang your name
I wore the ring
and I wore the dress
that I hadn’t grown into yet
there was no revelry
only a dream, a fantasy
conjured from wishes
the dark cycle repeating itself
and the shadows still fell
in my hollow soul
just another page turned
in an unread book
© Ann Bagnall
