A/N: Written for EmyPink for the NFA Help Haiti auction. She requested a poem to accompany her story A Rose For the Assassin, so I would suggest reading that first, as this spoils the ending of that.
roses and truth
a whole new world:
she is sent to end his life,
to do a job, nothing more.
instead, she finds herself . . .
intrigued.
their eyes meet, if only
in her imagination,
and she hesitates, flinches,
misses.
a first.
but not their last meeting.
she follows him, posing
all the while as someone
who doesn't really care,
who would rather see him
dead. like a rose, kept
alive inside a plastic bag,
or pressed inside a book,
she wavers between life
and never knowing
his love.
her scent remains.
and then, they reunite.
he begs and pleads with her,
stay, be with me, i love you . . .
but she knows she has to go.
suddenly, the world explodes
and he looks to find . . .
she is gone.
heartbroken, he pours
himself into writing
about her, disguising
their identities, selling
their story as fiction.
in some ways, it is.
he publishes the novel,
and files her memory away
in a special place inside his heart.
he knows she's gone forever,
until he receives a gift one day,
something that forces him
to question his sanity
and brings a smile to his face:
a rose from the assassin.