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Gem of mine, bright and beautiful
Your verdant hues flashing in the dim moonlight,
Rest in the palm of my hand, willfully
And lay still while I trace your edges
So finely cut, and yet so soft to the eye
Hewn and tempered by the pains of life

Fortune brought you to me, dearest gem
A treasure in need of a keeper
Lost and forlorn you sat in the shadows,
Waiting for somebody who would mark your sheen
And selfishly, covetously, take you up
To value you above all others in truth

Keep you I did in a crystal case, firm yet polished
I watched you from near and from afar
Admiring every angle, every scene I could
And on occasion I would pluck you from your cage
To feel you in my hands once more, and revel
In deepest pleasure that you belonged to naught but I

And should the day come that the gods
Would deem it fit in their cruel machinations
To see you snatched away from me,
Pilfered, in the night, by another
Whose lust would outlast my vigilance
I may never know true comfort again


But alas, these thoughts are vanity
For you are already gone, and you now lay
In the arms of another, perhaps more deserving
And certainly of a purer heart. I know
You were never mine to keep, and now
You have left me here, alone in the dark as you were

You are no gem, love, but a soul
A soul so torn and without direction
That I should know only deepest guilt
For ever daring to keep you here with me
For yours is a hard lot to carry, and I
Could never bear to bring you greater sorrow

And yet, your freedom is my prison
Here now I lay alone, by the moonlit path
A stone of sullen character and countenance
No more remarkable than the weary cobble
That paves the walk of life, and I know now
That not all who are lost should hope to be found

It is here I will wait, watching in solemnity
As the world once again passes me by
And as I reflect on the life we shared,
A sonnet of tenuous love and trust, I will know
Perhaps too late, perhaps too tragically,
How blind I was to your brilliance in the end

-JT