Bitter Harbor

        I watched as the woman I loved wrapped her arms around a man I once called friend. I wanted to turn away, but I couldn’t. I was frozen in the spot near one of the two lighthouses that stood sentinel at the harbor’s head. I was held motionless in the very same place I met her, welded to the position where we shared that first electric kiss, mortared among the same mound of stone where we promised each other eternal bliss. My witness of this unholy event enslaved my senses in time and space.

         She stood near the other lighthouse with him, separated from me by the rush of the harbor bound tide that passed between the seawall supported watchtowers. She didn’t see me. She was only aware of him, captivated in his arms, much the same way she bound me to her on this spot so many years ago.

        Dark clouds encroached from the sea. A fog rolled over the ocean and silently crept towards the harbor. I didn’t know why, but the sight of that godforsaken mist sent shivers through my timbers.

        A chilled wind blew in, slinking her hair around his head. I was un-phased by the frozen assault. She buried her face in his in tongue-tied embrace, an act that left me speechless. My hands griped into fists as I desired that same deep kiss.

        The light of day faded. On the hill overlooking the harbor, a ruined abbey shifted to shadow. I wondered if my memory in her had left any shade. Did any glimmer of joy of our time together inhabit her thoughts? I wondered if she remembered me at all. Perhaps she simply discarded my existence, like a forgotten place left to decay with the ravage of time.

        People passed by me without notice. This wasn’t a surprise. I managed to float through life remarkably unnoticed. I was completely unseen until she found me, standing here alone, gazing out at the forsaken sea. My life was forever altered by that unsought salvation that destroyed my soul.

        At once I contemplated how many other men might have been tormented by her. How many other men were forced to reckon with the loss of this seductive goddess, forced to endure the loss of an all consuming love?

        I stared at the man she now held, glaring at her new target of desire. I wanted to be jealous. But, I wasn’t. My time with her had expired. What more should I expect? I looked at him and tired to send him a mental message, Well my friend, she will suck the life out of you as she did me. Enjoy it while it lasts. Without a doubt her kind of love really bites.

        The mist spilled in from the sea and rolled through me, granting an unexpected release. I phased with the fog and wondered how long I would be cursed to haunt this bitter harbor.

Copyright 2014, Sean M. Price