Elfje: Then and Now

Then
I was
a soul, desperately
seeking a body to
inhabit

Now
I am
a shell mourning
its emptiness; my lost
soul

---

Playing with the Elfje form (11 words spread over 5 lines in a 1-2-3-4-1 pattern) after quite a long time.

Also, 100th post!!! 

This elfje has also been put up at Simply Elfje. 

Janus

Look back

see
the castles you built
on air

crumbling
into dreams and dust

all the smiles
you forgot to plant
on your face

withering
away into the wind

your fire
which once blazed
and raged

fading
to ash and cinder

the steel
unbent within
your soul

brittling,
and reduced to rust

Now
Forget them all.

Look ahead

dream. smile. burn.
stay strong.

This year is yours.

---

Trivia time: This month gets its name from Janus, the Roman god of beginnings and transition, depicted with two faces - one looking at the past, the other towards the future.

On that note, wishing you all a happy new year!