The Day We Ate The Sun

I suppose I had to be a little lost, before you found me. Huddled in this alley light behind throwaways and my pride. I hear them in the streets throwing fire and resin. A little bruised, a little frightened. Your hands are black from their powder and your face warm from the blast. The coagulation of blood around your hair frames your face, a halo enclosing you. An angel of the strangest sort. 

"This hell they've created is a wicked place," your lips sputter out like glass, sharp in this night.

This hell was our place. Children jumped rope and marigolds grew in pots, honeysuckle dancing against the fences. Summer was growing near. I walked with you and talked of eating the sun, kissed the salt off from your lips. Warm tongues and happy brown eyes, you and I. I lost myself in those eyes and you found your ocean in mine. You would swim in them for hours at a time, come up for a breath and dive into me again.

We always said we'd build our world here, but what world? Our world is theirs to negotiate, theirs to destroy. 

You are my only world now. 

"Follow my voice," you whisper and take my bloody hand into the dark. 

"You know that I would follow you anywhere," I breathe hard as I stumble over warm debris and a child's doll, her golden curls burnt. Down a staircase, the door is ajar and we slip into a dark room with red curtains and a bookcase that has fallen over. The pages in the books have escaped and lay naked for me to observe them in their vulnerability, in their shame. Dreams written by an ambitious author, words poured out from his heart and bled onto a parchment, only to be ridiculed by my sympathy. Our dreams lay on the ground with them, buried there between those pages. 

The only light to cascade in here is from the flames outside and shadows of feet running by the window, but even in this dimness you are ethereal. I hear screaming outside the window as I kiss the wounds on your face, the taste of iron on my lips. I am apologetic for all the arguments through the years, the times I hurt you. I always loved how your eyes would close when I kissed you. I've always tasted the sun on your face. 

I am terrified in this dark and heat, but elated to stand here with you, knowing you are all I need to live. I would marry you again. 

A blast. Breaks the window, fire pours in to devour us, the world collapses on top. Under the rubble and the pain, I feel my life fleeting from my body on top of you. Your body is stiff, motionless and I know that you have gone. Left me here to mourn you. 

My eyes close and I am heavy now. Gone. 

Flash of light and I am standing, to see the destruction they've caused. Bricks piled on top of two fire-engulfed lovers who swore to spend eternity together. I turn and you are behind me, reaching out your hand for me to hold. 

I will follow you anywhere. 

First stop: the sun. I know it will taste like you.