A Storm In Heaven, Sections 13-18

But the lover he knew this would not be enough In such games as romance the going will get rough And his youth had not abandoned him yet Such failures monumental he would not so soon forget And all had been less than this goddess on earth No other had touched his heart so since birth So amidst the glorious dreams of love in spring The icy chill of doubt began to take its wing The mirror told truths he’d never liked to hear When faced with himself he’d rather disappear Than bear witness to what he saw as a goon A common ugly brute, spawned from a cartoon With his disproportioned limbs and pessimistic hunch Never had Ryan stood out from the bunch His muscles had weakened from ailments past And his metabolism sadly had deserted him too fast His green eyes burned fiercely for his love had not gone And sleep seldom reached him until long after dawn Ruminating at length on the woman he desired Wrecked his body and wracked his mind so tired Could she ever love one as common as I? He asked many times neath the midnight blue sky His answer proved negative on most mornings young And the tears had scarcely left him when the first sparrow sung At last, the abused and depressed young pup Decided he would go out on the town and drink up Pounding beers with no regard for the consequences thus Leaving him to stagger, cry, and flirt and cuss And as sudden as the sun blooming on the skyline The lovely Lyla was there, alone and looking quite fine In an instant all sorrow was cleansed from his mind And convinced him once more no greater love would he find On that evening with conscious sobered by passion My old friend took to speaking in a serious fashion Only I was there to listen to his marvelous speech Of the intensity he possessed, I know I cannot teach With a storm gently rolling on a westward winter wind The dark haired young man, chilled and quite pale skinned Turned to me slowly with the look in his eye That told I would recall this moment till I die “Tonight,” he began, “I have chosen to wait For this woman I love until some later date And I shall stay to this, if months or years may pass If that is the price of being worthy of the lass If I must stand by and watch others lay By her drunken side, while I have no say And hundreds will flirt and many win a kiss So I will remain in a life without bliss