Beginning End

By Sam Tumblin

The hourglass cracked without a sound
Silver sands fell upside down
Seasons gathered in my hands
Then vanished like forgotten lands

A blackened rose climbed through stone
Blooming where the light had flown
Its petals spoke in silent tongues
Of broken clocks and hollow lungs

The ocean drank the dying sun
As if the day had come undone
Waves carried fragments of my name
Back to a shore that never changed

Above the trees, the ravens spun
Circles around a frozen one
A figure draped in tattered white
Holding embers against the night

I followed stairways made of smoke
Each step another promise broke
Doors appeared then turned to ash
Like memories that fade too fast

Yet in the ruins ivy grew
Through shattered glass and splintered truths
Its roots embraced what time erased
And carved new shadows into place

Perhaps the end was never death
But winter borrowing spring’s last breath
A serpent shedding ancient skin
To let another world begin

And somewhere far beneath the rain
Beyond the sorrow and the stain
A lantern flickered faint and dim
Still burning at the edge within

Velvet Funeral

The rain arrived without a sound,
Like silver needles to the ground.
Black roses bent beneath the storm,
As midnight wrapped the earth in mourn.

I saw your shadow near the gate,
A memory preserved by fate.
Your velvet dress, your distant stare,
Still lingered like forgotten prayer.

Candles drowned in crimson wax,
Beside the names carved deep in black.
Each flame became a dying star
Burning softly from afar.

The cemetery breathed with frost,
Counting every soul it lost.
While ravens perched on marble stones
And winter winds sang low alone.

You spoke my name without a voice,
As though the dark still gave a choice.
The wind carried your sorrow near—
A melody the night could hear.

Then all at once the heavens cracked,
The moon behind the clouds pulled back.
And there beneath the bleeding light,
You vanished with the endless night.

But still I walk where shadows bloom,
Among the ivy and the tombs.
Hoping one dusk your hand I’ll find
Still waiting somewhere beyond time.