When I first saw you cry, your tears burned my skin.

I was too little to know your sorrows.

 

Yet your teary green eyes, like dewy evergreens, captured mine

the way that your bed time stories still echo in my dreams

The way that your heart still pumps blood into mine

The way that your hand still rescues mine as we navigate Life’s intersections Together

 

And I understood. I still do.

 

Your sorrow flowed to me – an ocean made of tears, and

I drowned. I drowned in your despair.

 

My emotions scattered to microscopic ash,

and I – a remnant of you – cried, too.

We, two weeping willows, cried together.

Together but apart.

 

You tried to hide your eyes with dark glasses

But trees can’t hide their leaves

How can you hide when I cry, cry, and cry for you?

You can’t hide me, can you?

 

In the fullness of time, I hid myself

I sank into my ocean’s abyss

​

You bought me my first pair of dark glasses

It’s your duty, right? To protect me?

 

Each night,

you tucked me under covers

Flicked off my lights

And darkness consumed me

But your “I love you” made it okay

 

So I understood.

 

With pride, I wore those glasses.

I concealed my eyes from the burning sun

And darkness captured me from everyone

 

– even you

 

We are an asymtope

Your lines – your stories and memories – determine the ends of mine

And mine yours

Yet the space between us never fills

​

Beneath our matching dark glasses

I capture your dewy green eyes

I’m old enough to know

I know your sorrow

​

Beneath the darkness

Within the distance

I’m still there

We’re still there together