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