"Another Book of Love"

Rock Ee Leonard

Their love was a thing to see.

In sleep they would hold and touch,

insidiously tangle their every dream.

And in the hours between, in their quiet way, they were never apart.

They WOULD never part.

And who knows how it happened?

He awoke to his dream and reached for his Lady,

but she had gone, yet was still there.

He saw her in the next room,

walking gracefully, smiling, talking.

He called out to her, but she seemed not to hear.

Reaching out to touch her he realized that

there was a transparent barrier thrust between them.

She turned to him, as if to speak;

Smiled;

Looked past him into another room.

He wondered if he was at all.

Hot tears scalded his skin as he pressed his face to the glass.

He cried out and pounded it with his fists,

but pretending not to notice, she turned and walked away.

And he lives alone now, in their tangled dark world of night.

He dreams,

and she is awake.

Kisses in the night, as sweet as rain.

Increasingly warm and humid.

Each leaves a soft wet trail on her waiting flesh,

leading quietly to realms of mysteries and dank forgotten gardens.

And every night it is the same;

And every night, different, as if it has never been before.

Overhead the stars spin.

The Wind shrieks through the trees,

and time waits patiently.

Often they will pause in the miraculous quiet that follows,

and hold each other gently, talk softly;

And she will kiss the wounds she inflicted earlier.

Oh she is sweet now! And SO penitent, but in mere hours,

perhaps even minutes, the scent of the hunt will rise in her dreams!

Words of love and tenderness will cascade from her mouth,

but she will live only for his blood and his tears.

And HE!

Too proud to cry,

too enthralled to run.

He will take it and then some,

punishing her cruelly with his indifference to the pain.

It only fuels her passion.

And often they will pause, and hold each other gently;

Trade endearments in the black velvet cloak of the endless night.

But tonight it isn't so.

All wrapped in each other they fall immediately into the deepest of sleeps,

A tumescent tangle of arms and legs, auburn hair and strange dark dreams.

The fingers of a hand rest lightly on her porcelain cheek.

A smile plays fleetingly on her sensuous lips.

He awoke to his dream and reached for his Lady,

but she had gone...

He saw her walking in another room and called out.

She turned, looked past him, smiled;

Walked gracefully away,

Leaving him to his dream.

She lives.

He dies.