I put this separate from the regular poetry because it is an incredibly difficult format called a sestina. It is based on the movement of six words, and I felt it deserved its own story. I hope you enjoy this!

Please ignore the random periods. It is the only way to break the stanzas.

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Laundry Sestina

.

His hands moved gracefully in the soapy water.

He loved the way it felt against the sword

calluses on them, making them soft and somehow

less abrasive. He did not want

to think of himself as rough or frightening.

He just wanted to be a regular man.

.

She stood quietly watching the man.

With all his attention on the water,

it would have been quite frightening

for him to know that someone was close and his sword

was not ready. But she did not want

his attention, just to somehow

.

be able to watch him, somehow

be at peace with the small redheaded man

so utterly against himself. Even more she wanted

him to always be as relaxed as he was with the water

and laundry, leaving his ever present sword,

his ever present burden in his room where it frightened

.

only the mice, but not even enough to frighten

them away. She hoped that someday, somehow

he could forever forget that sword,

and she could help make him the man

he already was deep down, and the water

would be forgotten too, and he would want

.

for nothing. She would be everything he wanted.

She would be anything for him. Though it would frighten

him if he knew just how much she wanted to replace the water.

Guilt was chains upon him and somehow

just like them it held the tired man

back and kept the reverse bladed sword

.

in his hands. One day perhaps the sword

would rest. The woman behind him could be with him. He wanted

her to really be with him, to make him feel like a man

again instead of some demon that children told frightening

stories about. He wanted the world to forget his past somehow,

to tell stories about a man at peace scrubbing clothes in soapy water.

.

She smiled as the water dripped from his hands, and she wanted

there never to have to be a sword in them, for him not to be frightened

of her, knowing she could somehow turn a demon into a man.

.

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A/N: Well, tell me what you think! Please review!