Why I Left You

I left you when the dawn was pale, When mist still clung to field and tree, No whisper, note, nor last farewell, Only the hush of loss to be. Was it the sighing of the sea, The restless wind, the falling rain? Did silence weigh too heavily, Did love grow thin beneath the strain? I held you close in autumn light, In springtime's green, in winter's white, Yet something deeper stole your sight, A longing I could not presume. Not chains, nor grief, nor pleading hands Could call you back from what I knew— Some distant shore, some wider lands, A life beyond the world we drew. And so, I wake to empty air, Your shadow gone, but love's still there.