Vows in absence

When time conspires to wear my name away

and love dissolves like ink beneath the rain.

I bind my breath to vows I cannot say,

for spoken truth is often born in pain.

Your absence sharpens thought to a fine edge,

it cuts too clean to offer sweet relief;

I learn how little words are made to heal

and how belief survives the lack of proof.

What promise stands when years demand their toll?

What vow holds fast when fortune will not stay?

Yet still your trace steadies my whole soul

as charts guide ships that do not curse the way.

Let time take all he claims by right or art -

I keep your mark, the measure of my heart