A Wilted Rose

Inspired by a past experience; adjusted and configured.

“We were both too young for love.” She had said to me.

We stood underneath the weeping willow tree at the time of dusk. The branches swayed in the wind, and so did her beautiful brown curly tresses. Her brown eyes, behind a framed glass; symbolized so much life...so much...admiration towards a selfish man like me. If only I didn't accept her letter those days ago. We wouldn’t be here right now.

Her feelings would have been spared.

I was a lonely man, not much occurred in my life. Many stories I heard by my peers. Mainly stories about wondrous adventures and many men falling in love. But for me, I was just a man who remained in his home, body trapped inside his hideous study. Bleeding my hands out on aged parchment, I wrote poems and stories. Stories about adventures and maidens in distress; something that is all fictional to me.

There was nothing real about it. Something that was too good to be true inside the life of an average man; which was exactly the point. Create a fictional imaginary world that escapes the horrific painful truth we all live in.

---

I walked barefoot onto the grass. The small green leaves gently caressing the soles of my feet...much like how her gentle touch caressed my cheek. This late afternoon gave resemblance to our first meeting. How she approached me with her pure white summer dress during my hours of writing. The woman was nervous, a shy tone laced with each word she spoke when she handed me a letter; the aroma of rose petals permeated through the envelope. She looked down upon me as I remained seated on top of the grass, a smile sketched across her face.

Deep down there was an inner conflict; an inner conflict where I oh so desperately wanted the love and affection from another being.

I was disgusting. I was cruel. I was...selfish for my deepest desires.

I craved so much and kept wanting to be fed the loving affection she had given me, with her sweet compliments and kind gestures. I was a mess. I knew it from the beginning that this was wrong; yet I continued. Until I met the end of my pleasures, to come to a conclusion that will hurt the both of us. The finale that will truly show my devilish greed...the sad pained expression that was laced from her words and from her face. I felt the heartbreak across the room.

---

I stared down onto the roots of the willow tree, the withered grass beneath my feet. With a single wilted rose clenched between my fingers, thorns pricking wounds into my palm.

“Hello my sweet Jewel...” I whispered softly enough as my words were taken away by the breeze. The branches swayed much like those days of old, which gave a reminder of her past presence. The man stared at the engraved stone as he placed a gentle kiss goodbye.

“I’m sorry my love..this is the end for us”