never mended

by Karyn Huntting Peters

so long a sacrifice
wore bitter in his breast
turning ashen and hard
save for the stone’s center
from which seeped slow words
onto a long hour’s parchment

emptiness never mended,
a parched thirst never sated
in a soul left divided.

now and again sleep came
or verse floated in a dream,
and the life after this
rode swift with the wind of promise
enough to keep the shadow of
day’s mirage in sight