A Lesson in Etymology

"There's a common misconception" he says,
"that words have meaning.
It's actually the other way around.
We have meaning in life, and put it into words."
She thinks hard on what he says as the words ring heavy in her ears.
Everything she was ever told has been a lie.

The systems, the protocols, the way gravity pulls her down
but dreams pull her back up.

Meanings have words.

This explains hurt.
This explains anger.
This explains ...love.

That thing in the pit of your stomach,
the one you can't find any words for,
there's a reason.
It didn't come with pre-determined limitations.
There is no capacity for anger.
There is no capacity for hurt.
There is no capacity for love.
We can measure letters and words and books
but at the root of it all, it's what you feel.

And now, she feels empty.
Because everything was a lie.
"Listen Allie, you can't let it getcha down now" he says.
What does he know?
Etymology, psychology, logicality, practicality
but FEELING!
Emotive looks between two people is not something you can compromise.
It's not something for which you can set parameters.
It just.... is.
Like her.
Like life.
Suddenly, her feet can't pick themselves up off the ground.
And for the first time, it has nothing to do with gravity.

Like the Third Satellite of Jupiter

He watches her like Galileo,

studying her orbit

breathing in her stardust 

as though she were the very beginning of all human existence. 

I watch him,  

A Galilean idol of my heliocentric universe.

My every though revolves around the way he holds his breath when he is sad.

And yet, I am nothing more than a sunspot on his horizon. 

A temporary solar flare

unnoticed offerings of passionate love

dissipating in the black hole of his peripheral.

He studies her

like the phases of Venus; 

waiting for her to come full circle and shine upon his face

never noticing that the shadow cast upon her

is the residual effect of his eyes passing through me on a street. 

It's not that I couldn't live without him

but when searches the skies for her 

relentlessly

When he mourns the loss of even her most uncaring way

I can't help but choke on the reality that He is my Sky

and I am but an endless ocean
full of his heartbroken tears.