Intermission

War Torn (part 1)

Mechanically numb, on her knees she had been,
Tending to shrubs; fingers brown and green.
This garden they had lovingly cared for and grown,
Before her world tore apart when he left her alone.

She sensed everyday that he still survived.
Persistently paused in a moment of time.
More implicitly certain with each passing season,
Her faith led to stubborn rejection of reason.

So she tended the garden, she tidied the hedges.
She mowed the lawn, trimmed around the edges.
So that on his return, it would still be exact,
Normality waited for him to come back.

Unknowing she worked in the hot summer sun;
The day she had prayed for had finally come.

__________

Motion of wheels, soothing steel lullaby.
He looked out, not seeing, the smudged world pass by.
He remembered her smile, the smell of her hair.
The years stretched so far, since last he'd been there.

Rush of apprehension, he shifted and twitched.
Fear he'd grown used to, but nothing like this.
All the times he had yearned for this very day.
Yet the colour of home left him white, dry, drained.

Pulling into his stop, nauseous fright over took.
Too surreal familiarity, he trembled and shook.
In that moment, within seconds of reaching his goal.

He froze,

in disbelief;

he was finally home.

Behind the grief,
the heat rose up,
Like the souls of the dead;
Shimmering from the ground.
Made the air appear to breathe

as she
Slowly
turned around

Eyes lock.
Time stops.

The years crumble away.
Stealing from her memory,
All the loneliness and pain.

Her hands fell open,
the gloves fell to the floor.
He became aware;
he was lost no more.

She.
Open and longing to be held in his embrace.

He.
Broken, ever altered, choking in shame.