THE FIRST TIME HE SAW HER, SHE WAS LIKE NOTHING HE’S EVER KNOWN. THE
DESIRES IN HIM MURDERED HIS SLEEP AT NIGHTS AND LEFT HIM TO THE COUNTING
OF HOURS JUST TO SEE HER AGAIN, WITH VISIONS THAT PLAGUED HIS SOUL OF
CONSUMING LOVE. LOVE ATE HIM TILL HE COULD BEAR NO MORE. AS SHE LAY ON
HER BED SHEDDING TEARS THAT ONLY LOVE COULD, LIKE TOMORROW SHALL NEVER
SHOW HER FACE OF HOPE FOR MANKIND. LIKE HE WAS GONE UNTO A BATTLE, WHO
KNOWS IF HE’LL DIE OR RETURN TO HER LOVING MAIDEN ARMS AGAIN. THEY
SHARED LOVE NOT KNOWN TO MANY MORTALS. ANGELS LOOKED UPON THEM AND
SMILED, FOR THEIR LOVE WAS HERALDED IN HEAVEN, THESE TWO.
THE NIGHT WAS LIKE FOREVER, YET THE MORNING PREVAILED TO DRIVE HIM UP
TO HER FATHER. HER HAND WAS GIVEN TO HIM AND HE MADE HER HIS OWN BY THE
UNITY OF THEIR SOULS. FOR THEY BECAME AS ONE BODY – IT WAS MARRIAGE THEY
CALLED IT. BUT, IT IS AN END TO THEIR LOVE?
TIME PAST, SEASONS CHANGED, NOT WITHOUT TRIALS THAT CONFRONTED THEM.
GRIEVE CAME WITH HER SORE DISPLEASURES, EVEN AS HE BROKE DOWN AND WEPT
ONE UNEVEN DAY. HE SAID THESE WORDS:
“What happened to the years of our courting?
How I loved you like my soul
How I held you by the hand and never will let go
How I kissed your tears of fears away
How I looked into your eyes and saw myself
How I praised you above every other maiden
How I sang all the love songs I knew while we lay beneath the starry skies
Oh! How, Oh! How!
What happened to the love we knew?
What could this be that hurt me so?
How I loved you so, to think of nothing better than making you my bride
What has marriage taken that should have not?
What should it have brought that is withheld?
Show yourselves my flaws if there be much concealed
Oh! Is marriage an end to my love for you?”
WHEN SHE HAD CRIED AND HAD NOT A TEAR LEFT TO SHED, SHE SAID:
"Oh! The love of my youth, my darling husband and friend
How do I deserve the misery that has befallen me?
To you did I yield my maidenhead, for I was a sure virgo intacta. An honour kept for no other
Today do I wish I never kept my virtue?
How did I think it that it can be like yesterday when the only pain and tears were for missing you
I
no longer feel your warm embrace that turns the freezing cold of winter
into the soothing heat of summer, even like a blacksmith’s hut.
Is
there any other that pleases my lord, to put her charms of women on
another’s, that brings an unholy comfort to his bosom for a season and
leave him in an everlasting time of agony, who thought she is of a fairer
skin that is not of nature’s gift, to make my lord’s heart wander after a
mirage and strangeness? Bewitch him not you foul fiend from hell,
cursed from the foundation of the earth. Loose your hold over him who’s
bound already of a holy matrimony to my soul.
My reverie put unanswered question to me to wonder upon
How have I become a distress, even to myself?
Did
I not tell you of the secret of my beauty, which lies upon the light
that I see in your eyes. Perchance you desire I fade away like an
unpleasing thought?
Faint me not, for will I drown. If only you see how much the heart of the mistress of your home is in great doubt.
If
only you understood the pain of a woman that stood by the alter in
tears and she vowed the everlasting vows, for she loves and fears by
whom she swore to. He truly is terrible in his judgement, to leave not
the guilty unpunished. His punishments are sore.
How have you not seen how deranged are my tear ducts are that have caused me to weep blood?
Is this my price for marriage?
Oh! Is marriage an end to my love for you?"
THE
RIGHTEOUS JUDGE STEPPED IN AFTER HEARING THEIR CRIES. FOR NONE OF THEM
BLAMED THE OTHER IN THEIR WONDERINGS. BOTH OF THEM CRIED AND DESIRED TO
UNDERSTAND WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM. THEN THE JUDGE WHISPERED TO THE MAN
AND SAID: “FIX YOUR HOME, FOR I HAVE GIVEN YOU MUCH POWER. ALL THAT
BEFELL YOU IS NOT SUCH THAT HAS NOT BEFALLEN MANKIND BEFORE. THEY WERE
YOUR TRYING TIMES, AND SEEING THAT YOU DID NOT ACCUSE YOUR WIFE. THUS,
YOUR MARRIAGE TO YOUR WIFE IS THE BEGINNING OF YOUR LOVE FOR HER, AND
HER TO YOU, AND OF THE FRUITS OF HER WOMB.
HE HEARD THOSE SILENT WORDS AND ACCEPTED THEM IN GOOD FATE. HE WALKED UP TO HIS WIFE AND WHISPERS:
"My darling, the love of my life
My lady, the mistress of my home
My flower, my Lily
My jewel, my priceless one
My beauty, my mirror to look upon
My maiden, the covenant of my youth
My sweet, my pleasure, my virtuous wife
How have I allowed my wandering heart to speak to your ears?
How have I allowed the doors open for doubts to creep in?
How did I question your faithfulness and loyalty in my solitude till it was written upon my face?
Will you not forgive my moments of foolishness?
Will you not refresh today with the vows of yesterday?
Yes! I am convinced of my glorious marriage with you. Woe to me if I had not.
Yes! I believe, marriage is the beginning of my love for you."
(Till death comes between us, and the heaven steal you away,
I stay yours forever, don’t you worry, don’t be afraid, come what may.) He sang this song to her.
When
he’d finished speaking with his arms wrapped around her and not likely
to have enough of the embrace and seemingly to break her. She knew of
such touch and remembered sweet yesterday of its blissful memories.
Ready to rekindle such fire again, she said:
"Oh! How favoured am I among women
Oh! How sweet it is to see the colour of love again
My husband called me virtuous, blessed, and a maiden
Hm! I smile and chuckle between the wetness of my countenance, that I am a maiden again
Oh! The voice of love that speaks sweet madness, even marvellous things known to hearts without guile
I have been restored of my dreams
I have been healed of the calamities of the soul
My
husband, my lad, know this; that a thousand knees bowed in fervent
supplication can not make God turn this way or that way against a
sincere, yet, simple prayer I prayed for you, clasping my breasts that I
gave suck, and in my nakedness did I raise my voice unto the heavens
and to the maker of all that be. I asked that he should bless thee and
keep thee from all thine enemies
Tell me my lord, the head of my body, is our trials not over? For I feel it in my soul they are.
I remember my vow to you my darling, for there is nothing better than loving and being your wife and the mother to your children
Marriage is truly the beginning of my love for you."
THEY SANG “FOREVER YOURS” BY MICHAEL W. SMITH AND DANCED IT ENDLESSLY. THEY ARE STILL SINGING AND DANCING THE SAME SONG.
Moses Kogis
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