Shadows are Long

she stands, frail and forlorn against a lonely window,
the garden full of blooms like she overlooking with that empty look;
her emptiness, a bold splash against sombre skies and evening’s long shadows
Her gaze falters and fades, a dull gleam in her rheumy eyes.
her gaze inwards pans into sterile rooms, their inmates, old and infirm;
their tottering limbs and quavering voices spell a listless lifelessness.
“Somebody had died”, yesterday the matron had said.
Whose turn was it today, tomorrow and the endless hereafter?
She shook herself as if to shake off the troubled cobweb of her tangled thoughts;
when was it that the girl had come?, her mind wandered.
Was it last week, last month or in the infinite past stretching like the stark walls of the stifling home.
Why at all did she come?
Was it to clear her conscience, to fulfil filial demands, troublesome and pestilent. A terse,” How are u mom,” as if daring her to say otherwise,
a plonk of the dutiful basket of goodies and a hurried peck on her sallow cheeks as goodbye and she was gone like a draught of cold wind.her gaze disinterested
like the tourist with the bored look and the hurried step
the girl came and went, her mind elsewhere, her heart not here.

Food and creature comforts, not a penny was spared to please her.
but the lonely cries of a loveless soul, yes, the cries for company and companionship, the yearning for a kindly thought,or word or deed, the longing for the warmth of a loving family, dash again and again against walls,desolate and dreary,
crushing her spirit, crushing her very soul.
Why did this place not have a soul, to call its own.
Here love was bought and sold like a commodity,
here every need, every deed was measured and moderated against the might of the dollar.
‘What was she grumbling about”, people would say.
for unheard are the cries of a lonely soul, unseen is their plight.
the evening shadows lengthen, the day draws to a close.
the colourful dance of the smiling blooms
looms against the golden glow of a glorious sunset.
for sure these blooms will dance away her glooms in the sunset of her life.
Down the pages of history, down the march of time,
had not man turned to nature for solace and cheer.
She smiled as she turned the window latch, no more lonely,no more lost.
Tomorrow will bring some cheer, never fear.
Tomorrow was another day.