The smooth brown-skinned boy
Enfolded the brown-haired girl
In the orbit of his gentle love
And in this warm haven
She laid upon the bed of moss.

But the garland of flowers
Began to hurt her head
The necklace of pearls
Tightened around her neck
The long years of self-torture with another
Had borne in her a yearning to walk free
Her deeply buried phoenix
Beat his impatient wings
He needed to rise.

The splintering moment was upon them
His foreboding awakening that day
Could not have been averted
And as her tangled tresses hid the mask of pain
He returned from whence he came.

The hushed whispering of the dark leaves
Could do nothing to assuage the tears
The moonlight’s silver caress
Could do nothing to soothe the borne-out fears
The apparent shattering of the thing
Could do nothing but gaping grief bring.

But amidst the agony of the night
The smooth brown-skinned boy and
The brown-haired girl
Could not have know that
From darkness to dawn
The thing had changed
It had become reborne.