# When Maya Withdraws

When love departs,
night arrives.

Fistfuls of darkness
then devour
joy, memory, solace.

How is it
that all my love,
one by one, has slipped away?

Now I am merely
a lifeless mass of flesh,
or a fountain of merciless words.

Illusion recedes one day,
and then
hard questions
birth answers harder still.