At day’s first dawning
I held you close and touched your heartbeat
as the new sun rose over
a green and verdant land.

We walked hands entwined
across grassy pastures and laughed
at the comic antics of brightly coloured birds
who played in the warm breeze
that tugged at your hair.
And I saw the sunbeams dancing in your eyes.

I plucked a bright fruit from a new-grown crop
and we shared the sweet flesh,
savouring its aroma
and I gently wiped your soft cheek
then kissed you, tasting its juices on your lips.

We watched from high above
as fantastical sights unfolded below;
great stone temples looking to the sky,
great cities rising up from the plains
but you turned away from these,
hiding your face against my chest
as death swept across the once green pastures.

Your tears fell for those lost and those left behind to mourn
so I took your face in my hands
and my lips soothed away those tears
and calmed your sad heart.

And now we walked a strange land,
your arm linked with mine,
along straight roads,
through streets hidden in shadows
cast by towering structures of concrete and glass
and the skies cut by craft that left billowing plumes in their wake.

We came across a barren place
where the stench of death hung in the late afternoon air
and you gripped me tight, looking into my eyes
that mirrored the sadness around us.
We saw small faces lost among the ruins,
deadened eyes, ghostly pale,
and I wished for that bright dawn again.

But now the sun was low and slipping beneath the far horizon;
day’s bright warmth gave way to the blackest of nights
save for a few glimmering stars high above
and icy chills clawed at the land below covering it with deepest frost
burying beneath its crushing weight the misery we had seen and felt.

I held you close to me and grasped starlight with my hands
and in its silvery warmth we held each other,
your soft breath on my face,
waiting for the new dawn.