Shade's Remembrance (Elegy)

Shade's Remembrance

Red light infused dead dust with life;

he was the one with glowing eyes

who taught Shade how to live by lies,

the remnants of defeat and strife.

The closest friends, Blood Gem and Shade,

explored the caves of both their minds,

discovered both their separate kinds

in private ways their world forbade.

Their haven was a misty glade,

their sprig of love a secret thing,

so far removed from sunny spring

and all its gaudy plant parade.

It was a labyrinth of trees

and glinting rock in grey and black;

once there, they never wanted back

to beg forgiveness on their knees.

And beg they never did because

they found they were not wrong at all,

but still they had to heed the call

of daylight's world, its stifling force.

The obstacle they knew as life

came in the shape of family,

who found that the best remedy

for their son's state would be a wife.

They employed time and clever skill,

nursing an infatuation

with a beauty of his station

and bending Blood Gem to their will.

While strolling in the sunny park

with Blossom, fragrant, soft and sweet,

Blood Gem forgot through this new seed

his Shade, alone, left in the dark.

So glad and joyful was he, when

he told Shade of his future bloom

and all that Shade could hear was doom,

when turned from 'love' to his 'best man'.

Shade held a speech with so much cheer

as you find in a crumbling grave;

yet artful was he, and so brave

that cheer was all Blood Gem could hear.

The Shade, he did right by his friend.

Then after, fireworks did start -

those stars were his exploding heart

and all his light died in the end.

("Write your own set of four-lined Elegy stanzas. The theme is 'Remember,' (...) Keep the rhyme pattern a-b-b-a, use as many stanzas as you like, but maintain a consistent 8-syllable line.")