Still

I recall your ribbon smile
Eyes that flamed the night
Finding comfort for a time
In the dancing diamond light.

I remember your voice, melodic
As the call of tropic birds
And your heart, a glowing candle
That flickered at my words.

I saw you as a child
In the skin of a woman, grown
With a charming, temperate spirit
And a heart I may have known.

But time and distance moved us
And though I won't see you again
There still burns the smallest fire
That flickers yet within.

I sometimes sit before it
And watch the tiny flame.
It returns me to our loving
And I will never be the same.

Across the sea of time
And the immensity of space
Within that sparkling little fire
I still see your face.