The dew of the morning

   Sunk chill on my brow—

It felt like the warning

   Of what I feel now.

When We Two Parted, George Gordon Byron

The dampness pervades

Puckering my skin

Against the cold light of day

Dawn chorus seems muted

Perhaps tis apathy or dread

But the birds shake their wings

Fluff out their chests vainly

Seeking harmony and joy

In a dawning that brings

The dew of the morning

My mood is not lifted

By birdsong nor Sun’s rays

This cold has invaded

To my very bones

Drawing me inward

While outward shivers

Run randomly over my skin

As the dewdrop hovers on the leaf

To fall and run – an icy finger

Sunk chill on my brow

It fell like a brazen clang

A horrid clamouring call

The harbinger of what’s to come

That dewdrop brought doom

And foreboding in me grew

As in my very bones I knew

This is my presence’s reason

That caution and care I took

For this now, this moment

It felt like the warning!

All cat-wary and still as stone

This feeling of dread

and ruin have grown

Until my ears hear nothing

But the battle-thrum

raging raggedly in my chest

Still I wait in shadows hidden

To view this passion play

Love turns to ash, a parody

Of what I feel now.