He Says...

He says, "You revealed yourself once, took it all off in the name of love. Dance, how you danced, free in your tie died skirt the color of the sky, barefoot and arms extended, a tiny dancer of dreams. I remember your hair, it was long and flowing, made of golden sunbeams, your eyes as green as grass, and your smile, man your smile was an infectious disease with no available cure. Your heart was so full of life and flowers, you smelled of jasmine blooming late in the night, one just had to follow where you led…"

He pauses, wishing she would look at him as he continued, "...don't you understand? No one really knows when your light dimmed, if it happened all at once, or if it were more of a slow death, you were so bright, no one seemed to notice when the shadows started to creep in, some say it was the drugs, I say it was something far more sinister. To hear you tell it, it was always there, fools blinded by something you couldn’t maintain." 

Never looking at him, she breaks her silence and says, "It is you who does not understand, you see, I was more like a supernova, a star that suddenly increases greatly in brightness because of a catastrophic explosion that ejects most of its light only to disappear leaving those who witnessed it, the question of whether or not I was there at all."

She breaks into a smile, turning to look at him, she takes his face into her hands and says, "It’s just like you, to bring this around again, you long so much for what used to be, you refuse to look to the single event that caused such beauty to expand and retract. There is only so much a heart can hold, joy, pain…no one will ever know which consumed me." 

She looks away, her eyes drift off and in whisper she says, "Perhaps it is for the best, so few will ever know the experience, not everyone can claim to be a supernova…I am made of the stars, no matter how short lived, in spite of the shadows, I still shine...."

a tear escapes and she looks to him again, eyes searching, "...can you not see me?" 

BAN January 26, 2015 8:12 am

The Lines That Tie

When these sighs
no longer draw your lies
with finger pressed

between the ties
no longer binding,
you hold me firm

in the absence of your breath

ragged and calling my name.

Who's name is it
that now escapes through
your lips,

is she written in permanent ink
across black and white print

or was that another lie
to keep me coming

back to watch yet another
hold you at rapt attention
standing tall

begging for ego driven
catch and release...

BAN March 14, 2015 11:36 am


The lines that tie, even when severed, are taut with the weight of all that could have been.