Unable To Forget (Poetry)

Your voice has faded with the years, your laugh’s beyond recall,
’though echoes haunt me, now and then, bounce soft on memory’s
                                wall,
and I almost hear you, almost catch a whisper of regret
for promises that passion made and conscience never kept.

Affection lingers, tissue-thin, but love has proven frail —
abandoned on a selfish whim when novelty turned stale,
and I might forgive your fickle ghost if I were less than sure
the parting words you left with me had not been said before.

I wish that I were strong enough to banish from my mind
the random store of images that thoughts of you unwind,
but sense won’t edit, loss employs a sentimental cheat
as longing undermines my heart ’til both are rendered weak.

And time that mends our fiercest wounds, can’t heal the damage
                                yet,
and flesh, frustrated, aches some more — unable to forget.