Disclaimer: Star Wars belongs to Uncle George, and not to me (although it pains me to admit it).
A/N: This used to be under a different title with song lyrics, but it got deleted by the site because of the lyrics. It now has a new title and my own poetry. Thanks for reading, and feedback is always most appreciated!
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A tiny fracture begins to spread,
And fill unsuspecting hearts with dread.
Obi-Wan ran a hand through his beard as all that had happened echoed in his heart. The ship was tearing away into space, and the fiery planet was slowly fading into the black of space, but what had happened there still hung on Obi-Wan's heart. He still did not know how this could have happened. When he had left to hunt down General Grievous, he had felt uneasiness in his former Padawan, but how was he to know what that uneasiness would grow into? Should he have known the pain that would ferment?
To reach out and offer a hand,
Before it drops, the final grain of sand.
All of those times that he had tried to reach Anakin: to help him, to be the teacher and father figure that he knew he needed to be...had they all been failures? Had they all been for nothing? He should not have left Anakin on Coruscant. The boy had still need guidance, and it was Obi-Wan's duty to give it to him, but he had not been there. He had been off chasing droid commanders across the stars, while Anakin capitulated before the Supreme Chancellor's power.
He told me something, many years ago,
That I have never forgotten, and now want you to know.
He had once told Anakin what Qui-Gon had told him on a mission many years ago, "Though we are no longer at the beginning of our journey, Obi-Wan, we are not yet at the end." How had the end come so suddenly? How could this be the end, to leave him with his heart on fire, for the new Emperor to find?
Suppress emotions brother,
You are a Jedi, you cannot love another,
I teach you this with my all my heart,
So that your own soul will not be forced to break apart.
He should have been more understanding... he should have listened more. He had worked the boy so hard when he was training him. He knew the power that Anakin had, and it scared Obi-Wan. He did not want to fail in his promise to Qui-Gon to train Anakin, but now, here he sat, speeding away from the Hell that he had left his former Padawan on. He should have let Anakin cry, but he had always insisted upon being tough on him, mostly to cover up his own emotions.
I fear I cannot reach you,
And pay to you what is due,
As ephemeral songs are sung,
Your heart is still so young.
Qui-Gon had always been so kind, so in touch with Living Force. Obi-Wan had always had trouble connecting to others in the way that Qui-Gon could. Obi-Wan was a student of the Unifying Force, but when Qui-Gon had asked him to train Anakin, he could not refuse, even though he was a brand new Jedi Knight and barely twenty-five. He took the boy because his Master had asked him to, and doubt in his own abilities to train Anakin had plagued him from the beginning.
Give me time, my brother, my friend,
For in time can broken strings find amends.
Give me a moment to re-catch my breath,
Before the future faces death.
In time, of course, Obi-Wan and Anakin had become such good friends. Best friends. Obi-Wan knew that time would heal the wound in his heart that was left from Qui-Gon's death, but he was always so unsure what time would do for his life as a Jedi...for his life as Anakin's Master.
Streets have changed,
Is it possible, to face a war without antipathy exchanged?
The galaxy had changed so much, Obi-Wan thought as they sped towards their next destination. The life of the Republic had been slowly dying. Though the Jedi Temple was a place of peace and tranquility, the Force had been growing dark for so long. Everything was changing.
To yellow eyes I fear you have transformed,
And without emotion, killing tasks you have preformed.
Are you gone?
The echoes of younglings' yells as a bright blue lightsaber pierced their bodies rang about in Obi-Wan's mind. The memory of walking through the Temple with the bodies thrown mercilessly across the floor, the memory of turning on the security hologram and seeing Anakin...that simple memory brought chills to Obi-Wan's spine, and it made nausea defy gravity as it rose in his throat.
Slowly falling,
Trying to hold on,
I lose you as you slip through my grasp,
To perpetual obscurity.
Nothing would ever be the same. Never again, would he see his Padawan's sly grin as he teased Obi-Wan. Never again would they fight side by side as friends and brothers. Never would Anakin Skywalker see the faces of his children, unless through the crimson eyes of Darth Vader.
She cried from pain,
Their intertwined hearts were stained,
With the tears of love.
Obi-Wan watched helplessly as Padme's life slipped away. The words that had been spoken between husband and wife were still so unambiguous in Obi-Wan's mind. He held the comforting weight of one of the children that the medical droid had handed him. He cradled the child close to his chest as he watched the woman that Anakin had loved so much breathe her last breath. As her spirit left her body, a single tear slipped down her cheek. That single tear that was not for her children, not for Obi-Wan, but for the hope that there was still some good left in the galaxy...in the heart of the man that she had loved.
Just give me a moment,
To re-catch my breath,
I will return someday,
To come and carry you away.
Obi-Wan did not know what to do. He had delivered the baby Luke into the dawn of Tatooine's suns, and he had ridden off into the unknown, with nothing but Anakin's lightsaber and his memories so riddled with sorrow and pain. He would spend twenty years here, in the dark obscurity of the shadows of the Jundland Wastes. He would watch over the child from afar, and he would begin a new life, though he would still visit in his nightmares a place where ash clung to his clothing and suffocated his skin, where hatred descended upon him as he fought his best friend, where a love between two young people that had once been so filled with passion slowly flickered out. In his nightmares, the searing heat scorched Obi-Wan's heart relentlessly. Though these nightmares so often overwhelmed Obi-Wan, he always remembered the tear in her eye--the hope that perhaps, there was somehow still good.
Just give me a moment,
I'll be ok,
The fire will ebb,
In a moment.