For
As Strong as We are United (325 words)
Monthly Poetry Flood (February, theme: hope)
Acrostic Chapter Titles Competition (E, emerald)
Eventually, he will have to let go,
accept that she is gone and he is
left alone again with the shards
of a shattered friendship,
left at his feet.
To touch them and try to mend
what could have been and transform
it into what is
will only leave him bleeding,
wearing scars of all his
if-only's like badges of shame.
.
Eventually, he will have to stop
waiting, insomniatic eyes on the window,
searching for feathered news that
he is absolved of his sins.
.
Eventually, he will have to accept
that those emerald eyes,
warmer than any gemstone could ever be,
will be cold as ice
whenever they accidentally flicker in his direction.
.
Eventually, he will have to watch her
transform from Evans to Potter,
metamorphasis in reverse,
knowing that she should have become a
Snape all along.
.
Eventually, he will have to stop
praying to a God he doesn't
believe in, begging for better days
and a love that is supposed to be his,
promising to change his ways.
.
Eventually. One day. Some day.
.
But there is only now,
and he clings to it,
breathes it in like the
present will save his
dusky soul.
.
Now, he can spin sweet
spider webs of maybe,
can touch the surface of
the sun without fear of burning
and can waltz in the
craters of the moon,
with only hope to sustain him.
.
Now he can pick up those
shards and pretend he is
invincible, that the ruins
will not break skin.
.
Now he can sing the hymns of
promise, the ancient language
known by all, buried beneath the
wreckage of trespasses.
.
Now he can whisper her name
and believe that one day
she will whisper his back
in a lover's caress,
tones all beauty and silk.
.
Now he can dream of
brighter days, auburn and
emerald at his side,
hands clasped tightly
as though they're holding
the world and the future
of all that should be.