Love you till death

 

“Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live.” – Norman Cousins

 

 

The Sky was Crimson

And so is my memory

The crowd, the air; all were loud

Except my soul: the felon of this story

 

I witnessed something

Sinful and Unforgiven

That speaks of shame

And cries like wild raven.

 

A mob chased someone

In a fit of rage

My senses fluttered

Like wings in a bonded cage

 

A larceny or murder

What can befit thy imminent fate?

The anxiety ravaged me

But my soul remained obstinate.

 

At last I saw him,

A face familiar yet blurred

Where have I seen him before?

In life or dreams, I wondered.

 

Fear in his voice

Beg for mercy in his cries

My soul remained stubborn

Unmoved by his bleeding eyes.

 

As if being hunted

He fled like a timid prey

Until he stumbled to enter

The next scene of a tragic play.

 

They pounced on him

Tore his cloth and flesh

Roared in triumph as the life

Disheveled beyond human phrase.

 

He lay bathed in red

And the dust below his body

The tears, the blood shivered me

Except my soul’s silent parody.

 

Their voices soon died

So did he

The last word, I heard he him cry

Was a name that belonged to me

 

Nothing more to see or hear

Only the question unanswered

Who was he and his crime?

That left a life bantered.

 

Smeared in blood and red dust

Was his lifeless, yet closed palm

Some heaved sorrow some disgust

Pardon my soul, it promised to be calm.

 

One by one the crowd left

Leaving him with a bleeding heart

Like a spectator I stood alone

Beholding the blood stained art.

 

 I unfolded his fingers to see

What’s worth more than his last breath

It was a picture of a man I knew

A man who loved him till death

 

I held him close to my chest

And kissed his lips with mine

My hands now stain his blood

Will they ever fade with time?

 

My love for you, I let it die in me

I feared, you never loved this man

Today as you die in my arms, I know

I never stopped loving you, I never can

 

Now everything was silent again,

The crowd and the air

Just then, I heard my soul chanting

It was a lover’s forbidden prayer.

                                                                                    – Lover’s prayer

 

 

I could feel an incredible pain gradually emerging beneath the skin of my left arm. I rushed to the mirror to have a look. My left shoulder and arm were bruised badly; there was a long deep cut although the blood had dried up. WTF! How did this all happen? I panicked.

As I kept replaying the events of my last evening, trying to remember how I hurt myself, tiny fragments of my dream kept flashing in front of my eyes; the crowd and the boy, the tears and blood, death and silence and lastly… the indelible sweet taste of his lips on mine.  

 

The rest of the night I tried to sleep but could not. Not because I was afraid of hurting myself again with my finger nails but because I was too scared…. scared that the dream might come back again…

 

The End