Elegy

An Elegy

She was as young and beautiful as the earth itself, seeming aged
beyond her years though her eyes shown against the spectral sky told a
different story. She would mount a horse, both legs at a time it
seemed, launching herself up into the air as if an angel were holding
her hips and pushing her closer to heaven. From atop her horse, she
would smile down at me, soothing the hysterical air into submission
with her palliative voice. Her hair always hung about her thin face as
if she were a sea-maiden, just ascended from the sultry watery depths
of her abode. It would whip behind her as the wind passed its fingers
through it, reveling just as I, at the wonderful vitality even her dead
curly strands possessed within them.
She was to me, as well as everyone else, young and beautiful, at the
peak of youth, right before puberty comes to trample upon it and
replace it with nostalgic reminisces of ratty dolls. She did not want
to be old, as I had wanted to at her age. She only wanted to be young
forever, with her body eight hands above the ground and flying forty
kilos.
I watched her as her mother told me again how wonderful she had sung
in front of the class.
"None of the other girls can sing as well as she. She must have gotten
it from me. I always had a beautiful singing voice."
I smiled congenially at her, giving little resistance to the grapples
she made at putting my hands in hers. Her white gloves gently stroked
the top of my hand, clawing at the buttons of my cuffs. I glanced up at
her face, noticing suddenly an odd intake of breath. Her lips quivered
and she gripped my hand tighter.
"What? What is wrong?"
I had failed to hear the blurry 'neigh' of a horse unsatisfied.
Quickly looking over, I saw nothing but a jumbled bunch of clothing,
lying discordant between the legs of her horse.
The mother began to cry but refused to move, shooing me away with her
white gloves that reminded me suddenly of freed doves.
"My Darling?Are you all right?"
Aghast, I watched as the horse walked to the mother who beckoned him
with a red apple the size of a child's closed fist and a forgiving
smile. I remained on my knees, gripping an emptied vessel to my heart,
attempting to nudge a grave-sent beauty back to a world she was too
good for.