Whispered Promise
Whispered Promise
By JessicaRae
The light fell across the moving clock hands,
A thin silver line in the dark shadow.
The patient still ticking of the gears behind them,
Made the shifting sliver seem like a splinter of flame.
Slowly creeping toward that topmost hour,
The furtively twitching timekeeper
Dared to show how late in the night it was
To those that sat cheerfully below it.
“I should go,” she spoke softly, longingly, glancing at the clock hands
Laying aside the book she held, she rose gracefully.
He lay a hand upon hers, gently, rising with her,
And his eyes spoke all that he felt in his heart.
“It is not yet dawn,” he whispered, searching her face
For a glimpse of what she truly wished him to say and do.
“When will it be then?” she asked, slightly wistful, slightly smiling.
“Whenever we want it to,” he replied, boldness in his tone.
Her eyes sparkled at the desire he wove into his words,
She allowed him to encourage her to regain her seat.
Taking up the book they shared again, they read
Long into the dawn hours, as the soundless birds sang above.
Without hearing their melody beyond the tunnels,
Both readers knew the sun was up and high in the blue abyss.
“I should go,” she spoke again, regretfully, with sadness.
He felt it but lest it pain her, he could not show it.
“Be safe,” he simply offered, and she accepted.
Simple commanding words, although t’was a deep well of love.
He walked her to the surface, in silence and patience.
“I go no further,” he did not say, but they knew it.
“One day,” she whispered, and he nodded, just once.
Watching her fade into the singing birds of Above,
With well-concealed malice, the world composed welcoming songs,
But with loneliness, pain and darkness at its heart.
Her smile went with him, as he turned back inside,
The tender words echoing in ears that had heard them myriad times.
Darkness consumed his hopes as the tunnels grew wide and shadowed again,
Carrying into the darkness his whispered sorrow of “One day…..”