The Most Beautiful Illusion

The Most Beautiful Illusion

At first he didn't notice her

His eyes swept over the sea of others

Their meeting was inevitable.

Who could resist their end?

He saw her from time to time

When he took the others away

As he laid his lips upon them

Crystalline tears ran from her eyes

Years passed in seconds for him

He hardly noticed her rejection

Until he came to the bedside of a wrinkled fellow

His only company a girl pale and blooming

She leaned to kiss his brow

Soft hair fell across her face

Elegant fingers stoked the old man's hand

She told him it was too soon for his end

Death felt a flicker of something

Thick and green, and hot

What would her hair feel like between his fingers

That soft smile turned on him

He watched her often now

Waiting for the day she would join him

When he would kiss her lips and guide her home

But she seemed frozen in time, an immovable figure

Her heart seemed to be given away

He watched her fall

Her eyes glowed as she held their hands

He stole them away before their time

The girl stopped taking partners

Her light dimmed, but did not go out

Her heart still sang and danced

She didn't even think of him

He raged at her constant refusal

He was eternal

He was feared

He was craved

Finally at the end of days

She turned her eyes to him

"I've seen you before

At the bedside of those who have left

I have seen you in the eyes of hunters

And I've heard you in the gusts of a storm.

It seems fitting that I should meet you now."

Her voice pealed across the wasteland

In her voice he heard green saplings

A bee's buzzing wings in the summer sun

It was alive and bright in a way that was more

More than the dim din of humanity

His robes stirred the dust

As he reached out a hand

Giving him a knowing grin

She touched soft fingers to his cheek

He closed his eyes and kissed her soft

When his eyes opened she was gone