Sunset
A ship set sail without me.
I could see it in the distance, the vivid colors of the sunset nearly blinding as I tried to see her standing on the deck, looking back at me.
I felt hollow inside, lost to the world I longed to be part of- her world.
I'd never laid in her bed as her lover.
I'd never dried her tears as a friend.
I'd never given her advice as a mentor.
I'd never been more than her servant.
I'd only ever loved her from afar.
I'd stepped from my place in the shadows to defend her,
then stepped back into my role as the ghost of her life.
We heard the same tune, dancing around the flame that drew us together but once touched, burnt, throwing us apart again.
Now she was leaving me behind,
leaving me to remember,
leaving me with burnt fingers and an empty heart.
The tune dictated the dance steps, neither of us leading.
One wrong move and we took a blister for it.
One wrong move and the pain bowled us over.
One wrong move and and we'd be consumed, melted.
Once I'd jumped the fire between us, as bright as the sunset blinding me now.
Once I'd dared to let the fire melt me.
Once I'd been told to let the memory go like a vapor, to let the flame and the tune decide our fate.
Once I'd seared that same memory onto the murky crystal of my heart so often mistaken for ice.
Fire couldn't melt me,
Her rare, radiant smile could.
Fire couldn't melt me,
Her unique scent stirred me.
Fire couldn't melt me,
Her leaving, her absence has dissolved me.
I should have doused the flame and quieted the tune shaping our lives before the Pied Piper whistled her across the seas.
Now the flame has turned me into a vapor, a shade left to haunt and wallow in my memories.
The red sunset, the gold and royal purple fading into gray and liquid black suit her.
My heart breaks, oh how red suited her.
Oh, how red suited her.
The End …..