A last kiss

A sweet lady rides securely,
Among the swaying brush,
Singing a soft, light lullaby,
Riding towards the dusk.

And now her immaculate face
Wavers as she comes upon a meadow,
Where a fearsome battle, terror, and gore
Had ravaged the grass just hours before.
Blood and fallen knights surround,
Greeting the saddened woman with a sorry sight.

And in the midst of the destruction,
A gentle breeze sways the green canopies,
Flutters upon the currents of a nearby stream.
And there, laying close to the river bank,
The shy gleam of a million stars in the night
Illuminate the anguished face of a fallen knight.

The lady sits quietly near his silent body,
And he looks, meeting a parting goodbye in her eyes.
He weakly smiles towards that unknown face,
So beautifully carved with youth’s perfect grace.

“Am I to die here, tonight, my sweet lady?”
“Cannot love and kindness spare my life?”
He whispers with a melancholic sigh,
Barely strength enough to utter this vacant cry.

And the lady gently touches his face,
The scars and bruises that line his age,
Worn out caresses from a million kisses,
Line the memories of his cheeks.

“If the night shall decide,
You will never again open your eyes.”
She says that quite definitely,
But with a smile that leaves no falsity behind.
“But if fear and regret you harbor inside,
Expect nothing to be learned from this life.”

The knight looks curiously up at the pale face,
Her features gently engraved by moonlight,
Her eyes sparkling with a dancing intensity,
And there is no room for fear in his heart,
For strange and quivering warmth surrounds his tears.


“If ever uncertainty wavered in my spirit,
The fear and regret are now peacefully dead.
Who are you, sweet lady?
And why does your comforting hand
Give me a strength which I have never had?”

She smiled, and let her hand lightly kiss the stream,
She waved in the water and spread the droplets
Sweetly on the man’s dirty skin.
The fresh sprinkle seemed to breathe with peace,
And he quietly closed his eyes, dispersing all grief.

“Perhaps I have seen you sometime,
Perhaps seen your battles as you strived,
But tonight I am just a stranger,
I am just a passing and fading light in your life,
But you need not worry about why I linger tonight.”

The knight lay quietly in her embraced hands,
Smelling her sweet perfume, wishing for more time.
Oh, how fate can be a cruel, terrible master, at times!
That this newfound lady will fade and flicker
In a moment where all light goes terribly black,
And that I shall never see or caress her sweet face!

Oh, yes, how life is bitter, my dying friend,
How life is cruel, how the sun wavers each day,
Only to resign into fading red pastel colors
And faintly give up for yet another night.
Is it not bitter that we are not forever eternal?
Is it not bitter that the darkness chases our dreams?

The knight laughed a hollow cough,
And his eyes spelled out a prayer of longing,
They let out a spell of quiet admiration for life,
Now that his soul was slowly parting with all light.
But he did not harbor desperation in his heart,
For only one thing he wished from the penetrating dark.

“Sweet lady, I feel that my time is fading fast,
I have yet one wish, will you not help me one last time?
If I should have riches and gold, now I realize
How worthless their cold metal will be, as it shines.
But your gentle face and sincere smile,
They remind me that I have nothing to leave behind,
But a beautiful lady with moonlight features in the night.
All I desire is a parting kiss, with which to peacefully die.”

Yes, for that is all the knight faintly desired,
Not the battles and the conquests and the wars,
But the simple caress of beauty on his lips,
Not of lust for a woman’s body,
But a passionate yearning for her soul,
Not a kiss out of curiosity,
But a kiss for the last moment of his life,
Worth more than a million visions and stars.

And the lady bent down on his retreating soul,
And pressed her lips upon his love,
And embraced his waning passion,
Passing secrets and stories with that one touch,
A touch which liberates and binds and tells all.

And in that moment, the knight left her side,
His body now empty, devoid of life’s dancing glides.
The lady rose, gently pushing the corpse into the waves.
The knight’s closed eyes wavered in the water for a time,
Descending the sweeping of the stream’s lullaby,
Never to pass again in the meadow of darkness and despair,
Taking only a beautiful kiss from a stranger’s lips,
Leaving only her longing face looking curiously behind.