In Memory's Absence

Who lies within this sterile room bound by shadows of the past?
It is a man confined by time’s cruel grasp.
His memories lost like leaves that flee,
From thirty years, no trace to see.

He gazed at faces, strange and new,
Children once loved, he no longer knew.
But then she came- a face from the past-
A love forgotten now surfaced at last.

Her steps were soft, her heart unsure,
For the years of silence she'd endured.
Yet as he saw her, his tears did flow
A memory stirred from long ago.

He reached for her hand, though words were few
And mumbled sounds she almost knew.
Her name escaped his memory yet his soul spoke clear,
“Do not leave me; stay near, stay near.”

She held his hand; his grip was tight,
A tether to love through the endless night.
In his sleep, he found his peace,
But her heart wrestled, longing for release.

For decades past, she craved his care
A love unspoken, a bond laid bare.
But now, with time’s cruel sleight of hand,
He clung to her, a broken man.

The life he’d lived was gone, erased,
Yet here was love she’d once embraced.
She wondered if fate’s cruel jest was kind
To leave him whole or trapped in time.

A lesson gleamed from pain and years,
Through fleeting joy and endless tears:
Love unspoken can fade away,
But true hearts linger, come what may.

Do not withhold the love you feel
For life moves swiftly, its hands won’t heal.
Let each embrace, each word, each day,
Reflect the love you’d give away.

So, as she sat by his frail bedside
Her heart spoke truths she’d long denied.
For even if time erases all,
The heart remembers love’s first call.