Shine

Shine

She was beautiful, a sculpture of perfection.

He was tall, and dark, and strong.

Her eyes were green, and his were brown.

Her hair was red, and shoulder-long.

One autumn day she moved into town,

And lived right down his street.

They were only little then, boy and girl as one.

The day they met, something began between them.

She saw a dark fire in him, burning with intensity,

And his mind churned and crackled with poetry.

What did he see? A girl like the sun,

Who shone out waves of happiness,

And the incredible joy of being alive.

And that was what she needed,

And that was what he longed for.

So they became friends, bound together day and night

By their emotions, and as the years went by

They did everything together.

Two people, shaped by each other

Into a single coupled spirit,

Neither diminished; in perfect harmony.

He could finish every sentence she said,

But she said them anyway so that he felt them harder.

Everyone taught that a boy and a girl

Could have only one way of knowing each other,

But they were proof that this was not true.

Weren’t they?

As time went on he realized they were right.

He wanted to be even closer to her,

And every time she touched him it was harder to let go.

How could he tell her about his feelings,

And change everything they ever had?

The sight of her became a torment, a knife

Turning in his heart, that must stay hidden there.

But he could not hide his pain, and as he sat

Consumed in silence, the darkness rolled out

From his heart in choking clouds.

She asked him what had hurt him so,

But of course he could not tell.

It was the first secret that he kept from her,

And it pried apart the bonds of their friendship.

Finally on one fateful night

They fought,

A terrible confrontation, and all their promises

Of loyalty and all their oaths were recanted.

She fled in to the rain.

He cried into his hands,

That could never hold her body now.

And when she heard his broken sobs,

She slowed, and stopped, and turned.

She came back to him, and she held his hands

In hers and forced her eyes upon him,

And in a last attempt at reconciliation

She threw her soul into his

Down an iced-over bridge

Of shared experience and she asked him

WHY?

Why had he done this unbearable thing?

He looked up…

…and in her tear-stained eyes he saw

The last desperate chance; a final act of hopelessness.

So he stared into her verdant eyes.

And through the rain and through the wind and through the night

And his tears and hers

He told her of the pain that ate at his heart.

On hearing this she said nothing.

She listened until his voice dissolved again in broken sobs,

And she let go of his hands.

And through the rain and the dark and

After a moment that lasted an eternity she said—

YES.

He never knew why, or why not, and neither do I.

But in that angry night they shared something new and wonderful,

And all their troubles washed away

In the rain that beat against the glass.

He woke in her bed the next morning,

Filled with dreams of their euphoric night together,

And feeling the warmth of where her body had been.

Then in a wild horrified moment he saw that she had gone,

Could not face him, the completion of her spirit

Anymore, and he raced

Down the stair and

Out into the dawn,

His only thought, to find

The girl he

Could not live without—

But there was no finding to be done.

She was standing there on the hood of the car,

Singing out loud as the sun came up.

And they knew it wasn’t right,

But it felt so good, and her mother didn’t mind

Like they thought she would.

Now he falls asleep every night with her softly breathing

In his ear, and her hair on the pillow

Reflects the glow of the moonlight.

Again they were one, twin extensions

Of a single soul, and yet different,

Like a mirror that doesn’t quite reflect what it sees.

A bond even deeper now then before,

Because it flowed through their bodies

As well as their hearts and minds.

The next time they saw me,

She told me everything there was to tell.

And I heard, and smiled, and then laughed at the shine of it all.