Time is unequivocally not
to be exchanged or negotiated -
your time,
the time you lived,
and that pain of yours,
that pain, while seeming relentless as
a wretched tide
had its end - though as lonely and unreachable
as the quarry of a single shot
reverberating through darkness.
Now, as the first flakes of a long-expected
snowfall arrive,
I understand the warmth that love
has brought to my bed
and can lay you to rest, while I live.