Jane Sleaven

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Doleful, limpid eyes importuned me with questions,

Prolonging eventide's closure, our pathways in digresson.

Seldom averse to evening repartee, my departure halted

Mammaw coveted time for amused appraisal, her smile exalted.

Soliciting the winsome gamine's return, a whisper of spry charm,

I beguiled those despondent hours reminiscing old memories,

Tear-striken upon outddated albums of little ones resplendent in reverie.

Mammaw and my Pappy, poor unsmiling wretch silenced by woe,

Sweethearts for 30 years bygone, tis lovely days to her now unknown.

 

I rued the day her mischievous simper diverged into langor,

Her movements slowing, time stilled by ambiences of empty banter.

She jaunted toward her provincial smalltown, bittersweet haven, 

Mirthful laughter bringing remembrance to jovial Jane Slaven.

Alas, the momentary ebullience was but a fleeting treasure,

Vapid eyes surverying my features, defying past jocular pleasures.

 

Suddenly, she questioned, "beautiful child, from where have you come?"

An apearance sallow and insipid, a buoyant mood pitifully deflated,

My plaintive cries bloomed and overflowed, a face dreary and woebegone.

A room lamenting Jane Sleaven's demise in soul, a dismal evening dispirited,

Pappy's despairing touch beseeched my stay, a remedy of consolance,

For the loss of my grandmother's sprightly effervescence, 65 years tis erased.

Afflictedly, I endured a broken and contrite heart's agony, vaguely crestfallen,

As I contemplated my grandfather, soon-to-be disconsolate widow, grimly sullen.

Malevolent cancer, damnable term, subdued Jane Slaven's conviviality to gloom,

Life's moments elapsing, too quickly expired, color evading her every shriveled crease,

Beloved sweet Mammaw, tempted to succumb to a dieased mind's ill-fated doom,

Ne'er to remember that final instance of being, a blithe existence regrefully ceased.

 

A maligant growth deteriorated her brain and none the lest her heart, diminishing every jest,

Her body lifelessly supine as I bid farewell to the vivacious entity, silenced to rest. 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
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