by Carrie K. Hutchens

Laughter pierced the dark silence of night in a bitter mockery of all that is and has been and will perhaps always be.

There was no joy.

Only devastation.

Just tears of hopelessness caressed by the wonder of why.

No answers replying.

Just the darkness embracing and suffocating.

So many things should have been that weren’t, and would now never be.

Too many wrongful losses with no one to see… no one to care.

The sameness of everyday as if a hopeless day stuttered in repetition, unable to move beyond to a differing existence.

Laughter has stopped.

Quiet echoes.

Silence fills all space once accompanied by the excitement of effort in years long gone.

Today and tomorrow are the ending of a story once begun.

Acknowledgment replaces the dreams.

Acceptance is all that is left as the dreams fade into “once upon a time” to forever never to be.

Oh yes…

The laughter has gone — even the mocking laughter that once filled a night of realization and darkness.

Now a single tear slides down the worn cheek.

It’s all that is left from a story once begun all those years ago.

A story no one will remember after the last chapter is completed.

It will merely be a dusty book somewhere in the lost section of the library of life once was and nothing more.

Just a lost dusty book once touched by tears,

That’s all.

Copyright © Carrie K. Hutchens