Running paint,

It seeps down your portrait,

Like smudged mascara,

It reminds me of when I made you cry.

The tears counted in endless circles,

Performing their own dance,

only to stop when you rescued me,

caught me mid-fall.

Some nights I am still scared

Because to me, this was impossible.

Like when you hobbled down the path,

Merely a ghost of your former self

And I thought you were dead.

I can't believe how after all that,

you still wore your smile.

You told me that the truth would always be there,

Nursed as a comfort or strangled as a conviction,

There, always there,

I stood before you, shaking as you listened

As I told you,

Point blank.

I breathed in and waited for you to shoot.

I deserved it, after all you'd lost.

Yet instead I fell into your arms,

as you bundled me into a hug.

You whispered the words,

'I forgive you'

But that was before tonight.