A Lord of Many Masks (Wycliffe Family, #2)

by Jessica Scarlett

Always beside me, and never apart Like parallel lines, two beats of one heart I charted a course with the purpose unknown But lording the seas from a galleon’d throne Then turbulent waters crashed down with a might The waves of your hair streaming black as the night The heat of your stare, the brush of your lips The tide of your beauty o’ertaking my ships ‘Cast away now!’ my heart shouted at me, ‘And sail away from this spellbinding sea! Let me not drown in this cavernous deep— Let not my heavy soul wake from its sleep!’ Oh, had I but known you were trying to save My selfish belief from its watery grave! A savior you were, an angel of grace Yet sail’d I away from your warming embrace How blinded was I by my fear of the notion Of captaining ships through your terrible ocean Ne’er knew I my verdict would lead to my doom By fleeing away, I drowned in my tomb What then became of me? Fell I to my death? Yes death, and beyond, for I live without breath I hold it in waiting for scarcely a sign That I may be rescued—that still, you are mine To know I had held the whole sea in my hands! It’s anguish of mind that no man understands Now icy your stare as I thirst for your lips It’s anguish of body no man can eclipse Now where does your charted course carry and lead? To me, or my pain, or the torment I bleed? No; never beside me. Now always apart Like contrary lines crossing out my own heart