Gone is the child who once could hold a gaze Pose a question or turn a phrase As self assured as flowers in a crystal vase As happy as silk amid a warm embrace As satisfied as a candle's flicker down an echoing hall As deliberate as a poet's hand above a waiting scrawl Oh my god, where did she go? Pulling up seaweed having sunk into the spray Saving every other being she crossed along the way They paid her in clay and fired her with a glaze Left her as a vessel holding stories of better days Once upon a time she was a fiery white hot glow Burning out of control, blazing wild, and dying slow Everyone she knew has vanished in the past A trove of sunken treasure that was never meant to last Leave her be, she's had her share of glory, mirth, and toils She'll sit among the dying weeds and dine on gathered spoils Then disappear into the void as surely as a comet's tail Disguised, concealed, and carried away in the dust of a journey's trail.