They run through a damp forest, heading towards the mountain top so as to be closer to the sun. Bare feet crush grass and twigs, occasionally ripping flesh. The hush of early dawn interrupted only by their heavy breathing, once and now a stifled gasp of pleasure pain. The muted gray of a coming dawn beckons. Wondrously lost, they persist. As the sun sweeps over the horizon they fall laughing upon a pile of wet logs. Joyfully they kiss and bless the morning light for delivering them from ten thousand lifetimes of madness. The remnant of a bygone aloneness, blows like fairy dust upon the wind. He places her hand upon his heart. She is inside its’ pulsating beat. She closes her eyes and licks her chapped lips. In silence they hold each other for an hour, then two. Scenes of intercourse infiltrate minds at peace. Spoken words are but compositions from their fragmented past, along with death and the fear thereof. Life is now. All that matters.
The child they conceive will be born into a world, alas.
The present is love.
And in that, immortality.
THE END
Special thanks to Kellee Elkins and John Mark Thrasher for their help in preparing this manuscript.
Very special thanks to Graham Allen, Stephen Fitzpatrick, John Orr, Christina Petro, and Jim Reese for their poetry contributions.