Nothing lasts forever

Nothing lasts forever
so says the tshirt she is wearing
and to prove it, she is here
and then gone

And I realise
we never did speak about forever
we never did cast ourselves in a sweeping romantic narrative
that beckoned and invited in eternity

But we believed in 'for life'
we believed in death as the point of separation
you even stumbled on those words in our vow
til death us do part
the fun and the laughter as
we spoke of only being married for twenty years
grew from the seed of that surety
til death us do part

Fools
how long twenty years seems to me now
what an eternity
not funny
no hilarity
just searing loss
a thousand mile journey staring me out
absence
could-have-beens

The ghosts of a life only ever conjured
hung up like unworn costumes in a wardrobe, limp
meaningless without the characters to fill them

Nothing lasts forever it says
so why does this feeling of nothing threaten to persist