The floor is warm. My foot is warmer, not only from the heat I create, but from what you’ve given me. Your body was made of two hundred and six bones, strong, shapely, framing your beautiful form; it was made of organs, of blood, of constant activity, of life. I pressed my foot down on its entirety, covering your arms, your legs, all of you with the ball of my foot like a quill seeking to write. I broke the seal of your body and you gave me perfect ink. Thank you for that gift.
I wrote with it on my floor, and I will never forget that message. I will never erase it. I will let you seep deep into the fiber of my home, and I will always think of you, my handsome stain, my worthy stain, my good stain. I feel you on my sole, penetrating me, being with me, never leaving me alone. I will never leave you either. I will write for you, sing for you, love for you… the same way you wrote for me with you, and you sang for me with a single, delicate pop.
My love for you goes on, and my memory of you does not weaken. I look down, all the way down, and feel so much! I swirl my foot and see your lines grow, the rainbow of your whites, pinks, and reds on the sky of my floor an invitation to wish for this moment to go on forever, to never end… and the joy I feel in knowing it will not. My beautiful, worthy, good stain.
So let it be:
If I should bid the moment stay, or try
To hold its fleeting beauty, then you may
Cast me in chains and carry me away,
For in that instant I will gladly die.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d like to think there are no chains nor distance that will make a difference for that man’s fate. I prefer that than the thought of his giving others leave to rescue him from something more appealing than life.
Or I have to start reading Goethe. For fun.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I keep reading the title of this post as “Afterimage,” because the narrator clearly keeps seeing her stain long after she closes her eyes.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That works very well. It gives me an idea for a story too. 🤔
Thank you, Olo!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad to be of help.
(Not for nothing, but the view from down here was pretty sweet, too.)
LikeLiked by 1 person