Work Text:
It’s an old painting
Hidden behind a velvet curtain
Delicately displaying two worlds
that merged into one
“Why can you excuse my darkness, but not yours?”
The frame gilded and the subjects
No more than inches apart
Large hands meld together with small, rough ones.
The two started out as ghosts
Quick glances and wild misunderstandings
Young people with the single-minded goal of protecting their fragile hearts.
Thankfully
A lack of prying eyes and the cover of darkness
Gives way to shy tears and hesitant smiles
It’s like magic
When the static and buzz of everyday bustle suddenly
Melts
Away
Sometimes the most calming thing
is someone taking time to listen to your loneliness
“Because you’re not dark,” he finally whispered. “You’re light.”
Amber eyes, flecked with gold
stare lovingly at a brave smile
Highlighting a heart of gold
for all to see
Communication brings understanding
The puzzle pieces of her life only finding shape
Once someone found interest in putting them together
She thought they were bent beyond recognition,
Impossible to fit together after such calamity suffered
But all it took was a soft-spoken voice and strong hands
To iron out the edges and click each piece together
“But aren’t we all a little bit of both?”
Both had impossibly high walls to tear down
Walls born from abandonment
isolation
fear
But they sit together now, hand in hand
Side by side, immortalized in aging paint
Their smiles asking anyone who comes across them
To share a little bit of the light inside you
And to try to understand the darkness of someone else