999. My sad and poor heart, worn by time and pain,

SONNET 999
By JH Sayyar
My sad and poor heart, worn by time and pain,
Knows not the joy that once did sweetly bloom;
It beats beneath the sky of cold disdain,
And walks the silent corridors of gloom
Where hope danced in robes of golden light,
Now sorrow casts its long and shadowed veil;
The stars that shone have vanished into night,
And every breath bears memory grown pale.
Yet still it beats—though broken, not yet dead,
It dreams of spring beyond this barren field;
It whispers prayers the lips have never said,
And longs for wounds that time alone can heal.

O Take this heart, though frail and full of scars,
And lift it once again to touch the guiding stars.