Sunsets

The sky glimmers and cracks,

And the sunlight shatters

In a million different vibrant hues,

Burning up and setting alight

The calm, blue sky.

It's a sunset—

In the most beautiful sense of the word.

The world beneath it

Blurs and bursts into laughter,

The children of the earth

Playing under the last light

Of a dying day.

Night starts to shift,

And day begins to slumber,

And along it all, beneath them all,

Lies you and I,

Enjoying the chaotic spectacle

Of the beautiful cosmos.

It was a sunset when I first met you,

A stranger who stood out

In a common room

With all other strangers shuffling about.

You were a fire,

And the winged creatures of the night

Looked at you in awe

And buzzed their wings around you.

Perhaps your eyes

Were the most intense sunset

I've ever gazed upon,

A bright array of colors

Shining in between pulled blinds,

A fire you so intensely

Kept from the world,

Yet through the cracks and slivers,

I was able to see

And understand

The fiery, churning furnace

That resides inside you.

It was also a sunset

When I first lied beside you,

The warmth of your skin

Touching the cool sheen

I had around me.

Your blazing embrace burnt me

And melted me,

Thawing the once frozen heart

I've kept deep within.

It was a sunset when the stars fell

And so did our hearts.

And as your lips grazed mine,

You ignited my soul

And sent a spark trailing down

The crevasses of my being.

They say that a sunset

Blurs the world

And shifts it out of focus.

Yet through the madness of the dusk,

Through the headache I've had

Witnessing the demise

Of a snuffed out light,

You stood in stark focus,

The image sharp and clear.

Your eyes held

The brightest shimmer

I've seen in this world.

But alas,

That glimmer is not for me,

For you and I

Were not fated to be.

And so, the sunset screamed

And scorched the world

Under its scalding wrath—

And we burnt together.

It was a sunset

When I finally lost you,

When you had to go on your own

To search for your place in the world.

A hundred and ninety-eight sunsets

Have passed since then,

And with the setting of the sun,

With the dying of the light,

Comes the setting of my love,

And the dying of my heart.

And so, I will watch on my own

As the sky glimmers and cracks,

And as the sunlight shatters

In a million different vibrant hues—

Hues that shine

With the vibrant and vivid memories

Of the sunset

In your eyes.

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Originally written on April 9, 2018