Maiden of Mercy

Maiden of mercy,

oh how she blinds me.

Swirling, sublime majesty,

flying wherever the winds may carry.

Borne on wings of downy white

shimmering in the fragile moonlight.

At the mercy of her own delight,

she dances away another night. 

***

Flowing threads of silver hair

caress the gently-blowing air.

Wrapped in a gown of floral decadence

matched only by her radiance;

a sumptuous feast for my every sense.

Drifting slowly with the wind,

she stumbled upon him once again.

Bearing the same grin, ephemerally pinned-

to resemble how she knew him then-

over the ornate mask he never took off.

The boy perched in the clouds, hopelessly aloft.

Despite herself, she wandered near,

hoping her words he might finally hear.

But the sounds just seemed to disappear

before they ever reached his ear.

Lost somewhere in the dissonance

of a singing heart in a moment of silence.

***

Maiden of mercy,

oh how she blinds me.

Swirling, sublime majesty,

flying wherever the winds may carry.

Smooth the lines of this weathered face.

Grant me but a taste of your grace

and cover these words I can't erase.

Don't let me drown in the same ink I trace.

***

He regarded her through the cracked facade,

scratched and grooved like it'd been clawed

in a desperate effort to remove his guise;

but it wasn't enough to escape the lies.

His strength alone couldn't break the shell

that kept him locked away in hell.

So he stayed up here, among the clouds,

far above the sprawling crowds.

His feeble attempts to rejoin the herd

ended before he ever uttered a word.

Good intentions were never enough,

not unless you learned how to bluff.

She found herself with nothing to say.

Nothing she hadn't already said, anyway.

It felt impossible to find Words sufficient

to overcome the gravity of detachment.

Yet as she left, she thought she heard

him speak again, his voice recovered.

But still to her, his back was turned,

and so her heart was left to yearn

for the day he might finally learn.

The one thing he wanted all along...

it gave him the strength to write this song.

***

Maiden of mercy,

oh how she blinds me.

Swirling, sublime majesty,

flying wherever the winds may carry.

Over the oceans may you forever soar.

Let me not burden your journey anymore.

We walked this lonesome road together before,

but now I must remain here on the shore.

Author's Note

There's a duality to this poem I want to make obvious, just in case it's not. There's parts where "He", the masked boy, is talking in first person, presumably to his notepad but that's up to you. Then there's parts in third person through the POV of the "Maiden", aka everything else. It's probably obvious, but I'm worried about it so I'm elaborating anyway.