The sunset tastes like the death of stars and dreams, and the girl sits on the hill, watching. She can feel the cold, crumpled blades of grass folded beneath her and her breath fogs the glassy air. The glittering stars beckon to her, calling her name with whispered voices.
"Hazel, Hazel...We are waiting,"
The world in the sky awaits her, with stairs of imagination to climb and songs of space to sing. Breath escapes her in ragged gasps. She can no longer feel the frigid air caressing her smooth legs. The silence found in poetry surrounds her with opening arms. The wind wraps its traitorous arms around her, but it finds itself unable to suck the remaining heat from her. She is lost in the impossibility of her melting sky. The song of the atmosphere is a piano sonata, and the fingers of stars dance across invisible keys with grace paralleled by none.
She is drowning in heaven, she is sinking into paradise. Her heart beat slows. Her hair whips in the breath of gods as the last rays of the expiring sun fade into the sun. Her voice becomes lost amidst the layers of shattered darkness and her last words are heard only by the crushed blades of grass, the strangling wind, and the stars. The stars, her last pools of light, hear her. The stars, reluctant witnesses to the tragedies of earth hear her. The stars hear her and are filled with longing to hear her quavering voice again.
Her last words were a blessing, a wish, and most importantly, a promise. Stars take her. Stars take this girl who never asked for much. Stars take this girl who was content with her miserable life. Stars take this girl whose only comfort was to drink in the sunsets. Stars take this girl who whispered her own name to remember who she was. Stars take my daughter. Take her with my blessing to the world she wished were true and promise to hold her when I could not. Take her and never let her diamond teardrops fall from her ocean eyes again.
Ann, I always wished I loved you like you loved me, even if I never could deliver.