Paper Promises
by Elizabeth Santos
In attic's dark and musty gloom
With moondust settled in the room
My thoughts are swirling in the haze
Remembering the splendid days
Letters stained with fallen tears
Wrapped in ribbon through the years
Are holding vows upon a page
Mellowed now with marks of age
Carefully the bows untie
Unleashing every written lie
But still I seek to feel once more
The love I lost forevermore
Cricket's chirp's the only sound
To pierce the hush of my surround
A single lightbulb's dimming cast
Allows a moonbeam through the glass
In shadows of the attic's must
I speak aloud the words of trust
Unfolding each handwritten note
And fingering the love you wrote
No need to read through teary eyes
The words so firmly memorized
Carved deep into my spirit's vein
Where they still waken stirring pain
The moon has vanished in the dawn
Just as the love that's come and gone
With morning comes a muffled trill
Of cooing dove upon the sill
A soothing lovely peace he leaves
While perched beneath the attic eaves
I slowly peek to watch the pair
Of loving doves in calmness there
More faithful is the mourning dove
Than paper promises of love