The Gentle Betrayer

A Poem by Aramey

The heaven's painted spackles,
beautiful, bright, as each star twinkled wild.
So much wonder to see,
and one, just one, came down- beside me.

The warmth and the chaos all shone so bright,
in my wild eyes I'd forgotten how vast the heavens,
It was only this solitary star that I could see,
as it illuminated, breathtaking, as it shone on to me.

I'd forgotten the one who'd always hovered near,
a faithful friend, one might say-
shrouded in childhood memory.
And time itself, unmoving, waited as it whispered.

It came from the sound of the breeze through the leaves,
it came like an echo from across the sea,
whispering of a far off land,
but a land once known to me.

But with all good things comes a sacrifice,
standing at the cusp of a cliffside-
aware of jagged stone and black water's deep.
With one breath I leapt, one great bound for faith.

Never again would I see the heavens that way.
A moment of warning would come, and then return,
haunting, the ghosts, of all I'd known-
the whispers, and the echoes, soon became screams.

Dreams became nightmares, and the soon silence deafened,
amidst the tumbling and tearing away,
I grasped for the cliffside- but it was only sand,
as it raced through my fingers, my grasp, abandoned.

I thought of the star, so certain and steady,
it had stayed at the clifftop- and was looking down on me,
it watched as I fell, and as I grasped a branch,
it watched as my fingers twisted and snapped.

It watched as I writhed- and falling still,
it watched as I screamed for someone to help,
and when my screams became quiet murmurs,
it simply watched, but stood, fixed in position.

An eternity seemed to pass as the water grew nearer,
but fear had abated- and I welcomed it with but a whimper.
And just as I knew my body would break-
the star cradled me in its arms, just before it was too late.

It healed my fingers, cuts, and scrapes,
but as it held my hand to rise with me again,
I let go, wriggled, and shook away-
falling to the water, and it was there I stayed.

When the star returned to the water's break,
I hid beneath the deep waves that were now my shelter,
the star was still one of the worst betrayers,
and now all I felt in its light was distrust- it let the suffering belabor.

At any time it could have moved, as it did in the end,
no capabilities were in question,
but a little too late,
isn't only an expression.