It’s been 15 years since he fell in love.
15 years of staring at the sky,
Watching the sun fall into the mountains
Until he saw her face in the stars
And felt her presence is the light of the moon.
15 years of sleepless nights
And pillows damp with tears.
15 years,
And the memories still dance inside his head.

She was everything to him.
He loved her so much
His heart ached at the sweet sound of her name.
Her beauty was overwhelming,
Squeezing his chest,
Taking his breath away.
But when he kissed her
His heart became light,
And breathing was easy again.
When he kissed her
Loving her was simple.

But in reality,
It wasn’t.
She was sick
And there was nothing he could have done.
It was killing him to see her in such pain,
But unfortunately,
She was first in line.
Loving her was the hardest thing he’d ever done,
And once she was gone,
What was the point?
Why love something that doesn’t exist?
The problem was that people could die,
But love never did.

He only loved the girl for 22 days,
Before she crumbled to ashes
And slipped through his fingers.
He was the boy who loved too easily.
After she left
His heart was frozen,
And he was numb to everything.
Everything but his love
For her.

He didn’t know what to do,
Had no idea how to make the pain
And sorrow disappear.
He wasn’t certain of anything anymore.
The only thing he was sure of
Was that he wanted to be with her.
He wanted to hear her laughter,
To watch her hair flicker like gold
In the sunlight,
To feel the soft touch
Of her hand in his,
To breathe in the scent
Of her favorite perfume.

In the summers he would pretend.
He would lie down on the grass
And pretend
That the song of the birds was her laughter,
And the flashes of sun was her long, golden hair,
And the soft summer breeze was the touch of her skin,
And that the smell of the poppies
Was the smell of her favorite perfume.

Winter came with cold reality,
But he refused to freeze.
So he began to look.
He began to think
She was not dead,
She couldn’t be,
It was impossible.
So he looked for her in the trees,
He looked for her in the sky,
And he looked for her reflection in the ice of frozen lakes.

He kept looking
Until one night,
He saw her in the ice.
He saw her staring back at him
With eyes as blue as summer.
He stared at her
Until the ice cracked beneath his feet,
And he plunged into the freezing water.
He flailed helplessly
Until he felt a warm hand in his.
It was her,
And she was pulling him down.
His fear disappeared at the sight of her,
So he let her pull him down
Until they hit rock bottom.
And as he lay there holding on
To her and his last breath,
She kissed him softly on the lips
And everything went dark.

Firs blackness,
Then a bright light seeping through his eyelids,
And as he opens them
He sees and never-ending field of poppies
And birds chirping
And then…
Her.
Her eyes the color of the sky,
Her hair the color of the sun,
Her touch the softness of the warm breeze
Which carries the scent
Of her favorite perfume.
And as he sees her
Laying there
In all her beauty,
His soul warms up
And he can feel again,
And he can’t believe
That it’s been 15 years.
15 years and he’s still in love.