Constant Companions

This was written for entry in the ""Like a Song" Poetry Contest" . This poem uses all twelve of the contest prompts for August in the order they were given. The prompts are in italics.

I thumb through my thoughts like they are a
Shoebox of photographs with sepia tone loving.
Confusion clouds my perception of that past,
Certain only that you will outlast my love.

Can I find a path to regain the balance I'm seeking?
I'll try to find the faith that's been lost within,
Set aside the pain and nostalgia of personal history,
Adopt a mantra, "Here's to now and don't look back."

Can one truly overcome a passionate addiction to
A long night spent with your most obvious weakness?
Hope demands that I try. Seeking that calming presence,
Comfort in your arms, seeing heaven ablaze in our eyes.

All the other ways to lose a past, chase it from the night,
Waiting for dawn, what a wonderful caricature of intimacy.
My love, you deserve better, yet I find you beside me still.
I don't understand. You give me all but the reasons why.

It pains me to revisit the scenes of our partings and passions.
I need to find places where our time has had no ware.
Trying to puzzle it out, to seek relief in sweet reason,
It is apparent that the rhyme is losing to the riddling.

Lucid times of peace are rare in quiet times alone when
I can only listen to the fragments of my thoughts.
Seeking a path to follow, one outside of myself is my new hope.
Choosing to remain in ignorance in the myths of others.