NEW Take Thy Only Hand In Mine 1/1 Deslea R. Judd Copyright 2002 DISCLAIMER: No names here, but for what it's worth, characters not mine. Interpretation mine. ARCHIVE: Sure, just keep my name and headers. RATING: G. Downright pure. No, don't go! CATEGORY/KEYWORD: Poetry, Angst, Romance, Krycek/Marita, Marita POV. SPOILERS/TIMEFRAME: Patient X through Requiem. SUMMARY: Love and life in ten stanzas. AUTHOR'S NOTES: An experiment in traditional stanza-based poetic form. I don't think I'd do this often, but it was a good exercise and I like the outcome. FEEDBACK: Is cherished and answered, but I take a while. Forgive me - I run a dozen XF websites and get a lot of mail. deslea@deslea.com MORE STORIES: http://fiction.deslea.com But for thy kiss upon my lips The touch of wind is thy caress The things I miss - sensation, bliss Replaced with ice around my heart Tight coilsprings within my womb That herald my impending doom The spectre of my waiting tomb Pierce shards of ice into my heart Hands laced firm across my breast As they go about their tests A funeral - and I'm the honoured guest Drive ice-cold fear into my heart Shock and pain in glitt'ring eyes Anguished need without disguise Thy love remains despite the lies And melts the coldness in my heart News of our salvation taken Leaves me crumbling and shaken Thy will to save leaves me forsaken Ice forms again around my heart Without thy aid I live again To feel the sun and walk in rain Ov'r thy freedom I will reign With ice contracting in my heart Years of pain tear love asunder Vengeance sears like rolling thunder Its bitterness dragging me under Molten tears flooding my heart Footsteps fall on fallen foes What future holds, none of us knows Loneliness rains down like blows Bittersweet grief within my heart Thy only hand takes mine in thine A single touch of hope - a sign That love might once more live, divine Bring warmth anew into my heart It's for endurance that we strive Thy love and mine keeps us alive To love and thrive and to survive Brings hope to birth within my heart END -------------------------------------- AUTHOR'S NOTE: This one was very experimental for me, even though it sticks to pretty conventional poetic forms. Like most people, I wrote lots of poetry in my teens - some good, most bad - and haven't done a lot with poetry since. But a fragment came to me one day about a year ago - the first line, "But for thy kiss upon my lips" - and it stuck with me, so I wanted to let it out to play to see what it could do. I worked on this a few stanzas at a time over several months. That sounds very laborious and time-consuming, and of course it wasn't, but it was the sort of thing I felt was important to let sit for a while during the process. I had it on my hard drive for a while before deciding to post. I don't know if it will be many people's cup of tea, but I hope you got something out of it. Cheers!