Two Candles

They dance under the stars and the moonlight,
Beside a table clad in shimmering gold and glistening glass,
With two candles standing tall, despite melting wax,
Glowing brightly in the cool dusk becoming cloudy as the night approaches;
Her eyes act like a mirror, reflecting his face,
And there he sees his own eyes, pupils dilated,
As he opens up to this person he hardly knows;
That first kiss lasts seconds, but feels like an eternity,
And it carries them up seventeen steps to a red bedspread,
Where their newly discovered dormant passion takes hold,
Amidst an undying love he had felt once before,
But which comes entirely new to her,
Whose plague has prevented past feelings from flourishing;
Gently, lovingly, they come together, two people barely acquainted,
Not in a fit of lust,
Not in searching for a soulless encounter reminiscent of the Red Light,
But each stricken by private grieves not shared by the other,
Sad histories amalgamating to create what should be a promising future;
And then he sees her scar, above the breadth of her left breast,
And he kisses her scar tenderly, wishing he could heal it and the heart that lies beneath,
So they could live in unlimited time, to see the world together,
To get married, to have children and live by the sea,
Gazing forevermore at the unreachable horizon and the revolving sun;
But this is futile, wishes confined to dreams and hopeless harbours,
Her life is doomed to being dominated by pagers and hospital beds,
Too-ing and fro-ing from the home of her own to the home of the ill,
With her weak heart making it impossible to even walk her dog
Without tiring to near collapse;
So, she sleeps in his arms, content in the present to put aside the inevitable,
But he cannot sleep, not while knowing that this wonderful new thing,
This young love on experienced shoulders, wisdom unattainable even through surgery,
Is in the hands of a higher authority than his own;
His eyes strain and fight fatigue as he realises there IS something he can do to save her,
Even though it would mean him losing her forever,
Even though it would mean him meeting the creator of these cruel circumstances
Years before his time;
A beeping sound in the middle of the night awakes her - her pager comes alive,
There is a heart out there for her,
Yet he is gone,
And outside, one candle is extinguished by the falling drops,
But the remaining candle flickers unwaveringly in the rain.