So often

So very often

Melancholy invades my thinking

Eating insidiously into my soul 

Making me feel so empty

Isolated and spiritual destitution.

The blue sky

The sun shining through clouds

Are ever more

Isolated and briefer 

Than once was the occasion

Penumbric realities vicelike grip Is my master. 

The vibrancy of life

That was once mine

Has fled into the nether regions

Of Henry’s history

The tautness of life has slackened

Becoming a faded replica

Of what was once 

A fulsome life.

The midday of life

Has slipped to the west

The lengthening shadows 

The gathering darkness

Is coming ever closer 

To extinguish my mortality.