Stage Three (After Kahlil Gibran)

Day Five

A golden-locked girl loved me in my mid-life,

she had light, gentle hands that enfolded my spirit in its hours of aloneness,

they poured a bittersweet wine mixed with the pain of beauty

and joy of youth down the center of my heart.

The love endured was one that rung the stars of night,

and brightened the sun of day,

she called to me from different poles of the Earth,

and I yearned to hear her voice

and feel her touch,

they were the resolution that accompanied my being.

When she loved me back,

I smiled and wept,

for I knew a love which hath no bound nor end;

thus God united our souls.

She came to me one day with locks of ash,

her light and gentle hands had become the stones of years,

there were no more stars,

and the sun was covered with the veils of widows

who wept with the peals of thunder and lightning.

And now,

I no longer smile,

I no longer weep,

I am an arid and barren desert

that vaporizes any drop of moisture that grazes the surface,

and I find peace within these moments.