Love refuses...

Love refuses to change its course,

though it finds no path to travel on.
Love holds fast to all its hopes,
though all its cause for hope is gone.

Love sits beside an empty chair,
though endless hours pass, alone it waits.
Love seeks a train that never comes,
though past the time they close the gates.

Love checks the post day after day,
though emptiness is all it finds.
Love finally seals the lover's fate.
It locks her doors and shuts her blinds.

Joseph Weilenbeck 05/05/2018

Limousine moments...

The moments stretched
Like limousines
In funeral procession.
Each long and dark,
Appearing the same.
But, riding in each one,
A different memory.
Some familiar and often seen.
Some seen but once,
Then never again.
Like family gathered
To say good-bye,
Some better known than others,
But all present out of love.

They passed one after another,
Carrying their flowers
For his resting place.
Each pausing briefly
To be certain
I took notice.
Then, in tears,
Each departed—
Leaving a flower.
To dry, but remain.
To be treasured
As its color fades.
And kept
Forever.

Joseph Weilenbeck 2001
Written in 2001, remembering the night I sat with my father while he gently passed away.

If it were that I were...

If it were
That I were
Invisible and mute,
My apparent non-existence
Would be far more complete.

Thoughts and dreams
And feelings,
Now hidden in my heart,
Never could I dare to force
Reluctant ears to greet.

My state
Would then be clear,
And so, my torment less—
A mere living apparition,
Perhaps not meant to be.

Confirmed
By absence of response.
Condemned to the extant silence.
One to approach, but never touch—
To surmise, but never see.

Joseph Weilenbeck 2001