Love Once Shattered

They swore to never part,
To never let jealousy, greed, anger
Come between them
Ever.
Not once.

She was beautiful.
The sort of beautiful one uses to describe
The sunset or the ocean:
Breathtaking.
He, a tall man,
Rugged and outlandish
With a wink in his eye and an impatient twitch of the wrist;
Ready and waiting for action
Sure of his hand.

They loved one another,
Fully and completely
But a promise broken once is broken forever.
He saw another woman,
A girl
Young and pretty
And his first lady told her self he would return
He would apologize
He would repent
But no such thing occurred.
Instead she in turn, grew to love another also.

It was not until this happened that he came back.
He searched for her,
But was not fortunate enough to come across her.
Anger
Deep and searing
Drenched his cheeks in salty tears
And pulled love from his heart.
An hour
A day
A week
A year
He sought her out, his love forgotten,
Replaced by simple, cold jealousy.
Jealous because she had someone new.
Jealous because she had easily forgotten him.
Jealous because time had led her away,
And not him.
An hour
A day
A week
A year
And he found her.
She was with the new man,
Her husband,
Her love.
When he saw them, what could he do
But what he had planned for
Days
Weeks
Years
He glared, his eye winking on its own
Hunched his tall, sloping shoulders,
Winked again.
Then in a quick flash of
Anger
Sadness
Jealousy
The gun drawn
The bullet let loose
The blood spilled.
And the winking man’s words left ringing,
“Revenge is a dish best served cold”
Left ringing on the dead ears
Of two lovers.