Not-Quite Double Drabble: To Everything (Turn, Turn, Turn)

[v-angelique.livejournal.com]

Poem in italics is "Hillside" by Viggo Mortensen.


We underestimate damage
done to the sky
when we allow words
to slip away
into the clouds.

I remember making promises
to you outside. We
were watching flowers
that hadn't opened.
A bee darted, careful
not to stick to
your half-shut mouth.


"What if we work out a schedule?" Sean suggested, his hand toying with the blades of grass between them, mostly dead as it was late in the year for healthy lawns, or maybe early. His fingers plucked at the half-brown blades to avoid curling around Viggo's hand instead, to avoid the push that would send the boulder rolling irrevocably downhill.

"You know I don't stick to schedules," Viggo pointed out, a smile in his tone, a bit gravely but somehow still smooth, low, a sleep-deprived voice that made Sean crave whisky and tea sweetened with honey.

"What if we…"

"I'll see you," Viggo promised. "We'll make time."

"Are you sure…"

"We'll make time," Viggo repeated, turning his head to meet Sean's eyes. The plants were all dying this time of year, the inevitability of rebirth was too far-removed to trust.

"Okay." Sean nodded, looking at the bare patches of soil between his knees. Viggo was the first friend he had that understood him like this, but the world would rotate with or without his permission. "Okay."

Comments

[v-angelique.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I think it's interesting how readers have been focusing on the trust, which is more positive than I was feeling when I wrote it. But it's good, because maybe that means that my dark cloud had a subconscious silver lining after all :-)