And No More Would They Weep

They stood there, holding each other so close, gripping their bodies together in desperation,

Arms wrapped about each other like a life raft in a raging storm of waves.

He bathed her neck and hair in his warm tears as they shook and clung together,

Silent amidst a sea of moving, flooding noises. The earth and time seemed a river

Which flowed about them, a static island of moments slowly eroding like sand,

Gently washing down the stream of its tugging, relentless fingers, pulling them apart.

Neither could bear to release the other while this black hole of sadness opened its jaws

So near to each other’s heart; neither could bear this look of pain that spread,

By degrees, from first the eyes and then out into the entire body, finally striking

The heart like a great dark hammer, rushing down through the blood of every vein.

A force that felt like death smote his every part, a sound of such emptiness it hurt the mind.

He knew that if he asked she would stay; she would walk away from everything

She’d left, go back with him and sleep this night so soundly with his strong arms

Surrounding her like an atmosphere, their warm bodies tangled together like roots.

He knew he had only to speak the words and in a heartbeat she would do this thing

That lay there unspoken and unnecessary, for it lived in every breath between them,

Read and heard in the beat of their hearts, spoken in the spaces between their words.

But he could not do this, for though she would, she could not stay, not now, not yet.

And he would not brake her simply to have her there, though everything within him

Was tearing away, fiber by fiber, as the sand of their moments slipped through the fingers.

With the greatest effort he had ever exerted, he left this thing unsaid and unasked between them,

Though her eyes pled with his in silence for any excuse, any reason to stay this hardest of things.

“If you need me, call me in your heart and I will come.” Slowly, painful like releasing life itself,

He felt her body in their last moments, her face and hands, her sides and the small of her back.

They kissed soft and desperate as she slipped from his grasp and the tears wet their lips.

He knew, as she walked slowly away, that he could not stay long without her and as the

Distance sprang up between them, yet again, deep night fell thick and sharp upon his heart.

He must now, for a time, be again the hard and lonely thing that lives among the cracks of the rocks

And covers its heart in stones; he must now put on the hard and rough armor he wore in the world

And protect his soft and warm places from the cold, sharp bite of all the earth.

He must, for a little while longer, endure the bitter sadness and cloak the bright fire of his heart,

But he would never again say goodbye like this or allow the shadows to lengthen between them.

He would never again be parted from her by mountains of stone and waves of sea;

He would never again go to the places she was not and no more would they weep.

Eric M. Petit