We were once pure.

I know this,

because I now know corruption.

 

Soft petals of white

fell from the trees,

stirred by a spring breeze,

in the almost light of morning.

 

Nubile and chrysalis born,

you,

standing before me.

Matched black

with white lace

and my disgrace

caught up in that April air.

 

I set out,

a virtuous warrior.

I return to you,

something akin to villainous.

Bathed in the blood of the world

and soaked

in the tears of my ambiguation.

No longer certain

of who I am,

or what I have become,

I drift,

like these falling petals.

 

The look in your eyes

that once saved me

from a half a world away,

now reign in pity,

and confusion,

and I am left hollow.

 

I find myself standing

naked in the barrens,

high upon the mountains,

where everything is pure,

from the cliffs,

to the now,

to the sky;

but I,

never will be again.

 

You clothe yourself in darkness

and conceal yourself from me.

You turn and walk away,

and at the breaking of our gaze,

I know

that I am no longer

the boy you fell in love with.

I am a man,

whose burden in the whole world.

I know the shame, now

of shedding innocence.

 

 

HG – 2019