From the nightmare
we wake to the dream
before we open our eyes to reality

I fear I fret I freeze I forge I face I forget

I love you, he said
from the pages of the book
in her hand as she sat alone reading by the window

I am alone I am alive I am only I am everything I am enough

We yearn so much
be to adults as children
then perish ever after in the absence of youth

I want I wish I will I wasted I was I withered

We mourn so much
for what we’ve lost in death
because we ignored the chance to celebrate life

Too soon Too early Too busy Too far Too late

He kissed her lips
beneath the darkness
and remembered the light of another, long forgotten

I like I lust I love I lost I like I lust I love I linger in the longing

I walk out into the water             and the reflection
            that rises from the surface
is the face of a shadow                             now drowned
      a reflection               of what once was
a skin             long since shed
            a kiss                             long since settled
       a curiosity                 quieted
                        a loss                     let go of
    a fear                 long since faced
and folded                         and floated away
                   to wherever the water              runs to
           after it washes              towards me
                   through me                    and past me
          past

the past of me

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly

Photographs taken in Stockholm on a foggy morning walk around the islands.