Angel

He sat with his back against the wall, wings in tatters. He was singing softly as the people passed him by. No one looked at him, he saw them all. He reached out his hands to be heard, seen. No one looked his way, they passed him by.

He grabbed the coat of a woman, she pulled it to get loose.
“Listen to my story, it won‘t take long.” He begged, she looked the other way. “Once I flew high with the shining ones, now my wings are broken and I can‘t find my way home. I once sang songs of glory and joy. I once loved like the sun.
Rebellion broke out and I followed my love, I was restless as a swallow. He promised me his eternity and I believed him. We flew high with the raging war. I shed more tears than there are stars in the sky. Still I followed my love, closer than his shadow.”
Tears for a lost love wet his eyes and made them shine, unseen.
“We wished for freedom and we fell. A spear for my loved one’s heart broke my wings and I fell to the cold earth. My love did not watch my second fall, he looked straight ahead and led his people.”

“I awoke in a dark meadow with no company save the moon and the stars. Loneliness and longing drove me mad. I‘ve spent eons singing, hoping to be heard. Hoping someone might find me and bring me to where I belong.
I was once more shining than your brightest dreams. My flame went out and my broken wings are dirty. I want to go home. Do you know where I should go?”

The woman tugged at her coat and he lost his grip. She dropped some coins in his lap and hurried away. He started singing, with tears streaming down his face, in a language never before heard on earth. A song so sad that all who heard it would cry their hearts pure. Yet no one stopped to listen.

Unsteadily, he rose and started walking, wings trailing on the ground. Singing with closed eyes he walked into the road. His song drowned out the screeching tyres.
It began to rain.