Lost and Delirious

The forest absent of any light, is forebidding to all who venture within. Trees more like skeletons with fading leaves, have long ago died from their forlorn sorrow. Gray clouds can be seen through these dead branches, in the pale orange light of the terrified moon, and bats fly above in swarms of resentment. The ground below is cracked and thirsty, littered with the carcasses of rats, who's lives have taken a hasty retreat. A despondent thick fog hovers in the silent air, begging for life to walk through it, so that it may play with its mind. As I walk through in search of an answer, my soul already gone from what I have lost, there is no longer a point to my feeble existence. All hope too has left my withered, old face, so this is my sanctuary, this develish place. Bones crack beneath me with each tired step, and humid air chokes me with every breath. There is no wind, so the air remains rancid, with the stench of flesh rotting so peacefully. My mind is in such a delusional state, that I can no longer determine my fate. There she is within the fog, my wife I so long ago lost. She is in her ghostly night gown, arms reached out to grasp only me. I approach with a timid step, can this be real or am I too dead? I reach with my arm to grab her hand, and I touch flesh, cold as steel. I look in her face, but her eyes remain shaded, can this be the work of something sinister and jaded. I blink my eyes as they begin to fill with water, and upon focusing, my wife has once again gone. But in her place stands a more ominous face, the face of Death with sickle in hand. He reaches back and thrusts the sickle forward, striking my neck with a putrid, callous laugh. Then all is black as I feel myself falling, and land quite harshly on a bed of thorns. I gaze around at the barren landscape, for miles around nothing but the same dirty barbs. I look up to where should be the sky, but all I see is movie of my life. I watch, intrigued trying to find a purpose, and there she is with tears in her eyes. She is holding something, cradled to her chest. Then the realization strikes me like a bat to my head, There I am dying within her quivering arms. She is covered with blood, I presume from myself, and then she takes a shard of glass, and pierces her own heart. I scream aloud begging for her to stop, but my pleas go unanswered as she falls down beside me. That is the last image I saw of my true love, for we are now stuck in limbo, forever apart. The only thing that keeps my sancity intact, is knowing that my final words were, "I love you", and she responded in kind. Though we are lost and delirious in mind, we have loved and will never give up. Written December 16th, 2001 © on Dec 15 2001 04:55 PM PST   0 • 1