While I sat alone, waiting for night, dreaming of her in the waning light,
There appeared a shadow, broken and slight
Upon the floor in that waning light,
A shadow of woe even though
I’d loved her silhouette so long ago.

The shadow beckoned, a coarse invite
To take me from my sorrow and spite,
But if I had only the foresight to realize the invite
Would merely incite that much more
The wracking pain I had learned to adore,
That ache which brought her to me once more
In the waning light of the coming night.

I followed this shadow, this memory of love,
Chasing her in view of the moon above,
She, whose very sight could make my tender heart take flight
Until, and to my utter fright, her eyes no more spread their light
And left me to fight a dreadful plight,
Locked forever in days of night.

Never to live a life, I tore
After my hopes, into dreams of yore,
To follow this wretched despair loss brought,
A refuge in misery was all I sought.
I trailed death’s shadow to the nearby shore,
Where I had gone many times before,
A haunted place I could only abhor,
For she lived there, but does no more.

The waves did steal her breath and bore
To me my love’s pale self, and I swore
Upon her eyes, forevermore
That I would keep far from the shore
That broke my love one dreadful night
And took the one who gave me light,
My darling Adelaide, my love.

The wretched shadow disappeared from sight
Leaving me bathed in the awful white
Of the moon’s dreary, blinding light
And I cried, “Bitter, bleak shadow, it is not right!
Do you bring me here out of acid spite?
Why me, a man in a state so poor?
Why would you bring me to this wicked shore,
Of sorrow, despair, and nothing more?”

The moon shone bright with unfathomable might
Upon memories of pain, my lover slain
By the relentless waves of foaming white.
And I sat and wept on this malicious shore
As a flood of memories came knocking on my heart’s closed door,
While moonlight salted the open sore.
“Neptune, do you take delight
In flaunting your hideous, terrific might
By taking my Adelaide, my love, my light?”
I wallowed in a state of sorrow, waiting for the sun of morrow
To release me from the devil’s hold
Upon my being, my soul grown cold.

But taking rest was not to be as shadows crept up over me
And dragged me to the raging sea.
I resisted not, for time was short,
And in the sea I could consort with others of a various sort,
The broken, lost, the deceased sort, of which dear Adelaide would escort
Me, if need be, and I would join the court inhabiting the sea.

And as the shore came nearer still, I began to feel the thrill
Of my ever stronger will, bringing me to her until
Cruel Apollyon did halt my advance, and I looked out as if in trance
Out to a brilliant, appalling sight, shining through the depths of night.
A light.
Upon the sea it stopped and stayed, and oh me, oh I was unafraid,
And though my mind was greatly frayed, I did not flinch at the decayed
Love that was my Adelaide.

The ghost, the shadow, it came near,
Her glowing eyes were naught but clear,
And I could merely peer into those eyes so full and dear,
So I sadly did not hear
Those approaching from the pier,
But I shed no single tear
When my darling did disappear.
Her figure slight left bleak the night as I saw her fade,
And the apparition of my Adelaide,
The only one that I adore in this life was lost once more
To the harsh waves of the awful shore.