We met in a sand covered land.

The water washed up onto an unknown shore.

Isolated together through happenstance,

but the land was ours to explore.

So, we began this unknown journey

that was foreign to both our souls.

A castle built of sand

which would last until we were old.

It wasn’t built on fairy tales.

It wasn’t built on romance.

It was built upon a sacred vow

and friendship upheld by chance.

Behind the back of the other,

another life was being led.

One that lurked outside the boundaries.

An omission of words unsaid.

We built a solid base

that reached three stories high.

Up to the sturdy curtain wall

to protect us from the night.

I mixed the sand with stones,

to craft the battlement with power and might,

But you removed those stones of strength

and replaced them with shale at night.

In the streaming sunlight

our castle continued to grow.

Steps laboriously sculpted to reach the bailey

where our children ran to and fro.

A moat dug deep around this dynasty

to embrace the dreams inside.

But alas the drawbridge didn’t suffice,

the inner enemy those dreams decried.

The final stage was upon us.

The keep seemed stalwart and fine.

But one soul of the castle was vulnerable

to his own cowardice and crime.

His other life took over

without any shame or remorse.

His boots began to crush the sand.

The lives he bludgeoned with force.

The aftermath was gruesome.

Our souls shredded with pain.

That the other so filled with betrayal

felt nothing but disdain.

You kicked over my sandcastle,

that I lovingly created with trust

to shield my children from brutality,

but you squashed it all to dust.

Why should I be so surprised

when the foundation was not true?

A sandcastle built on sand

Can be nothing but black and blue.       ~ Anna Moreland

WILDFLOWERS by E. M. Duesel