Only Friend Am I

Looking passed the bursting white symbols
Of my unexpressed feeling,
I see the first brush strokes of cerulean
Highlighting the distant silhouettes
Of tree-bound hills and mountains.
From the aromatic sill of your window
To the warming edge of the horizon
The stars yet hint their sublime virtue
As I return my inspection to your
Flushed cheeks and brightly moist eyes.
Centered in your teary gaze
Are the flickering reflections of
The dwindling candles 'pon your wardrobe.
Your amber eyes, always at once
Startlingly independent and warmly welcoming,
Now rest wearily in woe-swollen sockets;
Truly but candles are your once bonfire eyes,
The energy of your haunting orbs stolen
Like the trust you placed in Him.
In clashing ripples of anger and love
Your beauty twists as desire battles reality,
Past emotion expecting better
Encounters the truth of his nature,
And you feel nothing but the fool betrayed.
And I, for all my unspoken feeling,
Can but wipe away the tears from your cheek,
Listen to your sobbing denials,
And pillow your fire-crowned head
Upon my painéd heart,
Knowing that only friendship can heal now;
And that for at least a time, your heart
Will be closed to mine.
Hence for now, only Friend am I.

(Yet I am conscious of the growing window-filtered light
Of the dawn, emerging afar from behind her postered wall....)