Inked In Crimson #6 (She)

Dear Daniel,

Winter is nothing but a prelude to spring. The hard, bloodstained earth seems to give way to shoots of green, life instilled in them by the hope in your voice. I take your arm in my hands and the sour smell of wounds fades. The battle has receded into a backdrop which hardly suits the romance being played out on the stage.

Beacons in black silk

beckon me close

Past eons of darkness

I now see a star.

It illuminates

the darkest night.

I can see the stars.

I know I am looking in the right direction when I gaze into my own memory and see splinters of joy. Amidst all the destruction, joy! I am leading two lives, and one is blissfully sheltered from the horrors we are growing accustomed to. I wish at times I could sever all ties with the person I am and lose myself in that web of purity and indifference. What is loyalty? I barely know. The heart races and every nerve blossoms. Did ever my loyalty afford me this pleasure? No, some feelings are chanced upon only once. Pearls are found nowhere but in the sea.

I gaze at the ocean

Is it only the sunset

That paints the sea red?

Listen to the water

Your words crash onto the shore

Your words flow through my veins

I am lost in the waves

I look forward to our meetings with anticipation I seldom showed before. I wait for your eyes to hold mine as you gently slide open the gates to your mind. I pause and wonder at that mind, that character, all hidden inside one person- one gun in the Union, one man in a unit, one speck of the whole. There is a universe behind that one speck, and I could explore it all my life. I am riveted to you by the mysteries left unsolved by bits of conversation.

Never was I so lost in speculation

Never more afraid

Night turns into day

I shall face my fears again

For one more meeting

One more sentence from your lips

What is risk to me

When everything is already at stake?

There are so many letters I write. My other correspondents are grim reminders of the tumultuous times. I cannot turn away from those who need me. I pick up fragments of conversation. I observe the surroundings, survey the land. It is a curiosity that in spite of this, only one face appears and one voice reverberates in my mind at the end of the day. I close my eyes and let the feeling wash over me. I stand at the point of a mountain that slopes neither towards the sky nor the earth. There is one patch of stability in this life and I have found it. Keep me enveloped within your gaze, lest I slip. It would certainly be a downward journey from here.

Roses wilt, pianos burn

Beauty spirals around until it suffocates us

Is it a deception?

Betrayal?

Nothing is what it seems, yet there is a hint of comfort left. Astonished at myself, I kindle a fire of hope. My heart has begun a wondrous journey through creeks and over cliffs, across the borders of a broken country.

Protect this love

from fate.

Yours,

Katherine