I push through the encroaching underbrush and spill into the meadow---our meadow. I dash towards the single tree in the middle of our floral carpet, promising shade from the scorching sun, and take to bed the ghost of our memories. The rich aroma absorbs my senses, filling my nostrils with its fragrant beauty; and mine eyes with its artistic display of iridescent color splayed upon the soil of our life, as if some celestial artisan had dropped his canvas from the heavens, littering the ground in such vivid hues of every shade imaginable.
Gazing idly into the endless depth of the sky and the clouds that harbor it, I wonder how long it has been since that time---forgive me, for I have forgotten.
Do you remember that time on this day, how it seems so long ago? We laughed with the trees, danced with the wind, and sang to each other sweet nothings of a future too soon cut short. It was a simple time, where all we knew was love and nothing else, because that was all that mattered.
Do you remember when we were young, and we would come here to play? You said that you would marry me when we grew old, and I’d promised I’d wait for you---for you and only you. So here I am, before you now, laying in wait upon our lone meadow bed. I should never leave you nor forsake you, but look upon the vast expanse of sapphire sky and see your face embedded in the clouds and be mindful of my oath to you I did confess. I’d be damned should I ever forget.
But still, I wonder, are you happy, smiling upon me from your seat aloft the sky?
And still, I wonder, do you remember that time I took your hand and led you away, lost to the world beyond the boundary of trees that concealed us all those times? I held you tight and, for the first time in my life, fell in love under this very tree with a girl who, despite how very imperfect she was, was unblemished to my eye. We kissed. Oh, did we kiss---a raging river of passion too beautiful to express in words. The soft outline of your lips, no sweeter by any other name; the warm embrace of your body clasped to my own as the world around us blurred away with the setting sun as it lit the heavens ablaze. Electrified, we were but young and in love. Who would have seen what was to come to pass?
Nevertheless, I wait for you in the place it began, on a midsummer’s night, beneath the stars as we dreamed those dreams of romantic fantasies, a life we thought was now our own.
Then came that night, so long ago, when the heavens fell down and my world crumbled around me. I missed the light, tires squealing, horns screaming, and then it was too late. The crunch of plastic and screams of the innocent, oh how cruel life could be. Now, I wonder, do you forgive me? I’m sorry, so sorry. Why did this have to end?
Awaking now from my slumber, I pluck a dandelion from the dirt and place it in the tree hollow. Do you remember these obnoxiously bright, little flowers? You said they were your favorite, how they were set to flame under the blazing midday sun. A tear trickles down my face and I look to the sky, heavy with dense clouds, as it begins to rain but a light steady drizzle. Why are you weeping? I should be the one crying out in reminiscence. So, please, I’m alright. Just remember that I still love you, always and always, forevermore to come. And be watching for me next year, waiting upon my return, to take to bed the ghost of our memories, reliving the joy of our youth, oh how bittersweet love lost may seem to be.