If shadows could bruise

His cruelty had made me cold towards you
perhaps because I had not been protected
(but how could you)

I thought you might no longer feel for me
that I was as a cold crystal swan
that could do nothing but sit on your windowsill
watching the world drag after itself like the sea...

like a bridal gown
like the moon draped in torn branches
like a wedding cake rotting in the sky
and the rats that crawl through it.

All that tired imagery through chipped-glass wings
reflected a different picture
something cracked, yet beautiful.
And when I asked why the pictures
were so fragmented
bruised colours, nicotine stained grins
spilled amber and far too much crimson

I was kept from the truth
of how you had kept us safe.
My memories were blotted out completely,
I was told as a child, that you were a ghost
and I could not know the difference.
I stopped believing in ghosts
and you were gone.

Quiet as a storm tip toeing at the edge of the sky
we would not bruise
we played shtum

and when he lay slumped
like a stringless puppet
exhausted in the aftermath
you would sneak us past a sleeping demon

to read us stories
in hushed whispers
with your voice trembling the delicate plights
of its characters..

you were so believable
when you spoke of how frightened they were
and took pauses at the wrong moments..when he stirred.

Three butterflies crushed in an ashtray.
Other's can only see the beauty
in the clarity of their wings now;
as though untouched.

We would not have survived if there wasn't
something intangible, something distant
that somehow kept us close,
able to find each other after so many years
and know at first sight that it was
you that had saved us
had lost us .

I wont write of bruised shadows and a tormented past
that would fuel a lovecraftian opera of dark imagery..

this ability to see beauty in the most barren of places
and translate it as the only way I know how,
comes from you

• On Sunday, February 22, 2009, carlosjackal (1799) wrote:
  
  A tribute that beats all tributes because of the difficulty to write it but not only that, the positivity metamorphosed from such desolatation and horror...Amazing. If I had a bookmark, this would have been faved.
  
  
• On Sunday, February 22, 2009, Dysphoria (144) wrote:
  
  It's been awhile since I've found something to read that made me want to say something about it, but this was beautiful, I loved the emotion in it, and how it came together, well done.
  
  
• On Thursday, February 19, 2009, urbanhumility (1350) wrote:
  
  a "chance purist" writes today.....so very well done........urban
  
  
• On Thursday, February 19, 2009, XTwistedOrchidX (102) wrote:
  
  This is absolutely amazing.
  
  
• On Thursday, February 19, 2009, saintedmad (1424) wrote:
  
  God bless...your final thoughts are always so impaling. . . ramrod striahgt to the heart of all that matters...or echoes, or resonates. . .. and they way you wiggle that rod around and find the softest surest sweetest spot is deathdefying. . .. this was so....unutterably ....GOOD.
  
  
• On Thursday, February 19, 2009, whisperer (217) wrote:
  
  as usual, another brilliant work...*kicks his notepad* youre depressingly good..you know that?