The Moonlight

I wandered through the bushes at night towards her garden. My bare feet were wet over the moist dew on the grass. Soil covered my inner toes as I shivered through the cold of the night. The icy wind was against me, beating against my face. Leaves from the surrounding trees crowded my sight and when the tears stopped rolling down my cheeks, the moisture on my face was replaced by the droplets from the leaves as the greenery stroked my face. I ambled through the shrubbery. My only guide was the moonlight. I looked up and stared at the round moon but it did not smile down on me like the sun had. No. It seemed to give me a disappointed look, but a worried look. I turned away from it and continued on my quest towards her balcony.

For so long I’ve been longing to see her again. I had been taken away from her so many times, and so many times have I been denied the one true pleasure of being able to be with her. They say I’m no good. ‘You’ll get over it my boy, you’re better off without her.’ But they know nothing of the pain. The pain at every thought of her, like a dotted rhythm in my day, hammers agonisingly on my heart. ‘Its suicide what you’re doing,’ they say. But so be it, if it puts me out of my misery. The broken pieces of my heart have passed many a time through the eye of the needle…
My trembling hands pushed yet another leafy branch out of my path. Some branches were reluctant to move, acting as if they were barriers protecting me from an unbearable pain, but the branches gave in. All of them gave in as if they were allowing me my freewill. All of a sudden, it became more difficult for me to see so I looked up at the moon again. The clouds were starting to shade me from the moonlight as the clouds moved in front of it, but the moon still glowed, like a lamp under a thin blanket. As my eyes became accustomed to the dark, I eventually saw the end of the forest, and the back of a big double storied house. Then I saw her form, silhouetted on the balcony against the feeble candlelight of her bedroom. But I could not see her face; her beautiful face which had a smile that had once warmed my blood was invisible in the black of the night. The stars were redundant behind the thick cloud cover. Her gown fluttered subtly in the wind as she stared at the hiding moon.
I had long since passed the point of no return, but I had now reached the point of reckoning. I hid behind a small bush and stared at her graceful form, bitter at not being able to see her eyes, which I had once compared to drowning pools. The sharp cold of the wind made me tense all my muscles as I stood behind the bush. I wanted to carry on towards her, but the absence of the moonlight made me consider otherwise. I waited.
She stood there, looking out on the moon. The brisk wind awakened me from my lingering. I, too, then looked at the moon. The clouds began to roll on.
I looked back onto her face blackened, by the night. The moon revealed its light slowly and at that moment, I had a sense of fulfillment which made me feel that my journey was all worthwhile…
The moonlight gradually lit up her face and my throbbing heart started to relax. The wind died down and I looked up at the balcony in awe. The moonlight had lit up her face in poetic fashion. The moonlight danced on her face and played on her features in celebration. I longed to make her lonely face smile again, for her happiness was mine. But her face remained still and expressionless. I felt at that moment that I hadn’t failed, for I had now witnessed true beauty. The music played within me.

A sound behind me broke this majestic moment, like the breaking of a string inside a piano. The crack behind me made me duck. I looked down and saw the faint light of torches illuminate the leaves on the bush. I was struck nearly unconscious with something hard on the back of my head as they pulled me by my forearm and dragged me indifferently through the twigs and stones in the soil. I continued to look through the dark at the balcony as I was forcefully dragged on by the soldiers. A graceful form stared in my direction and a second form, tall and masculine, appeared from her bedroom to stand beside her and look upon the commotion in the bushes. He led her inside under his arm. A dotted rhythm of pain singed inside my chest as the moon again disappeared behind the clouds.

© 2003