Identity Crisis

Identity Crises

She was dressed in a river lily

Descending on a rose petal

Barefoot

Sapphire skies and azure glazes

Lilac threads age frothing clouds the colour of light

A botany weaved through her hair

Spun gold in her eyes

Ivory on her skin

Pearls around her heart

Open arms beckoned her

To receive the gift

The gift beyond a name

He was a Tuscan palette 

behind the emerald shine

Vermilion in his veins

Rosewood made his virility

Lignin sinews

Strong against the wind

Fluid in the gale

Not so many precious stones adorned him

But he lived for her

He loved for her

Despite their different proportions

He would become one

With her

Under a light spot

In the spotlight

Recited the promise

That would make their stars align

Then the bright sun turned mellow

The clouds became styrofoam

A heat that froze his feet

Charred coal or charcoal

Ash and cinder

Or a diamond in the rough

He was too coarse for her delicate hands

'Do you ...'

His name sounded like a mystery 

He was yet to discover

'Take...'

Her name was a privilege;

A pilgrimage falling upon his ears

'To be your lovely ...'

Wedded wife ...

The sight of Canaan

The land of milk and honey

He knew he deserved to starve

She said his name in a beckoning

It was spoken like a question mark

'I don't ...'

The silence was suicide

The words a swift assassination

She spoke his name now like a prayer

He looked at her

In all the colours of insecurity

In all the strength of the broken

Her eyes were a crystalline mirror

Reflecting a stranger of dreams to him

The stranger he had run out of strength to be

He looked at her with the finality similar to looking at a dying thing

Prolonged

He said in an impromptu goodbye,

'I don't know who that is...'

Then the clouds descended and whisked him away

~ who are you?