No Images

No images present themselves to me.
I’ve been asleep twelve hours, maybe more-
a sleep dreamless like never a sleep before-
for all that time just blank nothing to see.

When I woke up, I laid there for a while
trying to view phantasmagoric sights
but little helped the afternoon’s wan lights
angling over the dusty window sill.

How empty was my mind the night before!
But can I say much better of the days
that pass me by in enigmatic haze
returning nothing, lost forever more?

Some say the sins of earth will not remain
in mind when heaven’s gates we finally cross.
Maybe this pattern of forgetting loss
works on me now, just as it might again.

But should I have hope when I cannot know?
No, only dull acceptance can I make
and pressing on, I’ll give more than I take
or trying, fail; in heaven still I’ll wake
for Christ will cleanse me of it even so.