No Longer There

Nat King Cole sings in the background.  Outside the snow falls.  Sweet.  Serene. She stands at the window and watches it come down.  The flakes drift through the air as if they have nothing whatsoever to do.  She watches. She listens. Her mind starts to drift.  She sees her kids young and eager.  Laughing and arguing.  She can hear them.  She can feel him behind her.  His strength and warmth envelope her as his arms wrap tight around her.  She is whole.  There is peace in her heart.  She can see and feel the love and life that once encompassed her home. 

As her mind becomes present she remembers that these things are no longer so.  There is no life in her life.  She is an old woman, alone and forgotten.  She became a relic long before her time.  Her heart is now a withered garden where feelings go to die.  If you could see inside it, it would resemble an old cemetary.  Gravestones that have fallen over from years of decay. Flowers that have gone past decayed and now resembled a black petrified artifact.  Ancient trees riddled with long strands of moss.  All of this shrouded with dust and darkness. 

A lonely teardrop falls.  Sadness and loneliness swell up in her soul.  They wrap themselves tightly around her neck giving her that all to familiar feeling.  Another teardrop rolls quietly down her cheek.  The dreams of yesteryear keep her locked up tight. They play on repeat through her mind. Loving, beautiful,  haunting, sad.  They are terrifying ghosts who ominously skulk through her mind.  They control her. She remembers once hearing that the past is lovely place to visit but not somewhere to live.  She dreamily watches the snow falling and hears the beguiling melody of Nat King Cole.  Another tear streams down her face.  She can see her children young and eager.....