Poem: Comrade – 22/02/21

Glowing in the dark, 
your pallour simply shines, 
you’re not sickness, 
you’re bright and mine. 

The whiteness that doth paint thy reserved cheeks,
highlighting flushed spots upon eager flesh
which competes with the calmed presence within you,
voices call for you to go, to go,
but you know better, you know best,
the truth. 

You won’t leave me,
no matter how much the world calls and calls 
for you to depart, 
you are devoted, 
purposefully stuck, 
in the land of Inbetween, 
your eyes and heart are thus awestruck. 

I didn’t aim to drag you aside from your path, 
the strength to do so required Herculean, 
but here we are, 
myself overjoyed and anew, 
and you distracted, wondering how this situation became true.

In a way, we both gained, 
yourself, a heart-song to warble, to unwrap, to borrow, 
performed in time, 
and myself, a loyal comrade who shall accompany anywhere with an eager smile.  

© 2021 Lauren M. Hancock. All rights reserved. 
Photo by Maria Lysenko on Unsplash

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