Beneath the cypress tree you lie

Basking motionless in silent shade,

A rose in your hand, a dress of jade

Clothing your alabaster skin.

Stiff fingers of milky white, pale

Blond locks framing your unblemished face--

You are cloaked in thin ivory lace

Lying silent in your coffin.

Baby blue eyes hide under closed lids--

So tender, pale and cold--how very cold.

I used to kiss there when your skin was warm and your hair gold

And you walked gently among your kindred and kin.

Sunshine could not compare to the radiance your smile

Brought to me; Nor could hope's little feathered bird

Last longer and stronger than your voice I oft heard

Singing beneath willows and birches on a whim.

How very clear I remember your voice,

Its sweet melodious vibes I hear everyday

Within dreams and every waking hour, I hear you say,

And proclaim your love repeatedly again and again.

The sweet press of pink natural lips I still feel on mine

--I wish to hold you, and feel you snuggle up against my chest

Counting the petals of a rose I bought, and joke and jest,

Then say each one's as good as the last one's been.

God is the sadist who took you from me,

During the sweet age of seventeen

And stole you away during the night unseen--

Could it have been that the Seraphs were too jealous of we?

Did we love too much and too strong, for far too long,

As was the case in Poe's "Annabel Lee"?

Or did we carry a curse borne from Adam and Eve

So thus you died to pay for the world's sin?

I would damn God if I truly knew that

I could see your face once more without his help and grace--

But I'm certain they've made a Palace as your place

Within the beautiful Elysian garden.

Woe! You lie so still in your stark white coffin,

The beautiful shell without the soul,

And it's too difficult to bear, and stay strond and whole

While I await my turn to cross those gates.

I wish to behold your face once more,

To hear the chime of your voice, smell your lilac perfume,

And see you count the petals of a rose of red plumes--one, two...

The ivory silk skin, sunlight-gold hair and sapphire eyes of you;

How could you leave me, abandoned my love?

I thought love conquered all, including despair--

Weakness too--but you're no longer here

And why is that--can you answer me, my dear?

Sagacious death, master and root of fear,

You stole a maiden far too young for you--

Loved by all--and I the most true

Beg for her back, and ask why, why did you separate us two?

Did you not see the passion with which I loved?

Or did you envy us, and coveted her too as the Seraphs do?

Thunder and brimstone I'd face unprotected

Rather than give her up to you!

De profundis, I cry and climb loose in black despair

No longer caring for the darkness--but focused on the light

Of my love's radiance--her image is still so bright

Surpassing all other gold and jewelled temptations.

If there is a heaven I'll find it by her so fair.

Dum spiro, spero

To one day leave behind the sorrow

And rest by the side, beneath the cypress tree,

Of my love, the dearly sweet Cyndia.