They Suffered in Every Way

She walked about the garden
She felt the grass between her toes
She searched though the upper windows
‘At least now’, she thought, ‘he knows’

He paced his room and worried
‘What if his father knew?’ he feared
Knew his heart was torn in two
Knew they were more than they appeared

Betrothed to some hostile face
But his father saw her fit
To refuse his fathers wishes
The family must surely split

Months floated for others
But the pair were haunted by sorrow
Perhaps they’d meet again
Maybe today, maybe tomorrow

It was not the next day but a year later
When both ventured out to walk
The air was clean but too still
They held their hands and rushed to talk

For once in their sorry lives
They felt soft harmony
They embraced as if they’d never parted
But turned to the West to flee

But his father had known more before
He knew of the secret attraction
His spies sent words of the encounter
And he immediately too took action

When the order came the boy fell down
His hand fell to his chest
He could not hide these feelings
Nor the love they both possessed

Their tears froze in the harsh world
Their ice daggers dinted the earth
‘We must wait again’ they think
‘We must wait for a second birth’

Their hands were tied in a knot
As the threads came loose on the spot
The scabbard hung vacant
Their distress lay still but blatant

It would be wrong to say it was painless
For their hearts bled every day
They felt anguish a million times over
And suffered every possible way