Longing

I’m haunted by longing now, as I age –

the remembered longings of youthful loves –

like an old book, where I turn to a page

back near the beginning, to see if it moves

my spirit now as then. Such treasure troves

of beauty and sorrow I hold within! 

Yet why, after so long, do they return

to haunt me? I’d resolved to relegate

all to burial chambers. But they burn,

those old flames, flaring ... as the hour grows late. 

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The NaPo prompt was: 'What are you haunted by, or what haunts you? Write a poem responding to this question. Then change the word haunt to hunt.'  I decided the poem worked better if I left the first instance unchanged.

The Poem a Day prompt was to title the poem with the name of an emotion and write about that.