Haunted By Sorrow (Poetry)

It creeps through the cracks
of the sunniest day
and clouds at the corners like doubt
a hand chills the spirit
that’s dreaming away
in the hope sorrow’s found a way out

Then it rolls like bad weather
unforecast — no sign
just a sudden dark smudge out to sea
where the sails of a ghost ship
familiar — malign
ploughs shorewards so mercilessly

The weight of it crushes
extinguishes light
till a Stygian landscape remains
and memories loom
from their own private night
with the stubbornness of bloody stains

There’s no mental knife
that can sever the past
just remove it like some rotting limb
and though symptoms may ease
the relief will not last
grief is always there under the skin