The Mage... Parts I - III

Faded and gray,
he was slowly shuffling by
in time to the weary tune
sounding softly within his head.

Going...
but he doesn't know where,
nor when he'll be there
nor even why.
Just... going to be going
somewhere... anywhere.

With timeless, steel-green eyes
he looked by me,
through me,
then at me...
and paused.

He nodded.
It was his recognition of my existence,
his total understanding of my presence,
the acceptance of my being.

His withered lips
slowly curved
into a granite smile...
a calming, gentling, knowing smile.

Without uttering a sound
he continued...
down his chosen road...
and I turned
and followed.

"II. The Mage..."

Moving, ever forward
following the tracks...
his tracks, his steps.
Our footfalls were slow,
measured, tireless,
though always steady.

Living in this path
'til his became mine.
In time, our time...
I found what was,
what could be,
what could change...
and what couldn't.

Growing, being more than I knew.
Awaiting... for the moment,
the ending.
Though dreading it's arrival;
but knowing, always knowing,
just how close it was
and nearer it was coming.
Inexorably, ceaselessly.

We aged in ways I couldn't stop,
nor would he...
if even he could... or dared.
He knew, though he never said
nor hinted
at what would be...
but he knew,
I know that now.

We walked,
we talked...
I learned how to listen
to more
than the sonorous rasp of his voice.
I learned how to see
beyond my vision...
then beyond his.

So much...
so much needing remembered
for the tomorrows
when silence would otherwise reign.

"III. The Mage..."

The days, eves, nights, our time,
passed relentlessly,
steadily...
his leading, my following,
his weakening, my growing.
'Til I understood
the man, his place,
heart, thoughts, our time.
Past, present, future
all one, all tied...
linked, beribboned and bowed
each to the other.

Then came the eve...
that eve of ending,
the awaited moment... the time.
He sat, staring into the night
listening to the stars
whisper to his heart... for hours.
Seeing...
and I,
I knew...
just as I knew what he saw.

He listened to our mortality,
each passing a whisper
from star to star,
of the changing of humanity
into what we are.
He watched the silence grow
as each star ceased to be
'til all that remained in the firmament
was unending black.

He sat still... motionless.
Even his breathing paused
to the moment's arrival.
Then drawing up... tightening...
his physical presence softened,
edges began to blur.
He seemed to swell...
outward, away.

I watched,
he slowly faded...
opaque...
to just a soft, translucent,
expanding glow.
His eyes then moved
slowly, ponderously...
seeking mine and locking,
holding my sight.
The granite smile returned.

I watched him pass to black,
transparent as the night
of which he became part.
Without a sound
to mark the journey...
just his chesshirelike smile
remained as an afterimage
in my mind.