Love beyond the grave

She lies curled upon the bed, arms and knees wrapped around a pillow, weeping silently, so none will know the ache that remains, the pain that squeezes her heart so tightly she wonders how it does not burst...why doesn’t it burst? It has been sixteen months since the heart of her beloved ceased to beat. Sixteen months since she has noticed the beauty of a sunrise, a child’s laugh, a bird’s song. Those who love her still have grown impatient with her grief. It is time, they say. You must move on, they say. He would want you to be happy. He wouldn’t want you to suffer so.Thus, she is learning to hide her tears and cry in the silence of the long, lonely nights.

This night, as she lay with tears glistening on her cheeks, a tiny sliver of moonlight shone upon her shoulder where could be seen a hand not her own, gently caressing. Behind her, lay the shimmering form of her beloved, holding her close in arms she could not feel near the body whose touch her skin had yet to forget.

“Oh my darling,” he whispered, “would that I could dry your tears and bring a smile to those lips whose kiss filled my heart with joy, to those eyes whose glance made me stand taller, because of the love that shone in them for me.

“Would that I could tell you once more how my world was made complete the first time you took my hand. How I felt myself become whole, something more, though I had not known until the very moment our eyes met that I had been half a man till then. 

“Would that you could feel my arms embrace you, my skin warm against yours, loving you. Always loving you. 

“Know this, my love: I am the breeze that caresses your cheek when the air is still. The faint breath on your neck as you stand by the window, staring up at the moon. The warmth upon your lips when you close your eyes, remembering. I will be with you. Always.”

Slowly, as moonlight turned to the creeping light of dawn, he faded and she slept, on her lips, the gentlest of curves. Almost a smile.