The dawn, if it could still be called that,
was a smear of rust and bruised purple
smudged across a sky choked with the ashes of what was.
Buildings, once stood proud,
now resembled hollowed-out skulls,
their empty windows staring blankly
at a world that had moved on,
or rather, fallen apart.

The air thick, full of remnants of before
and the gritty dust of pulverized dreams,
clung to my throat,
each breath a reminder
of the fragility of what we had lost.
Yet, amidst this symphony of destruction,
amidst the groaning timbers
and the whispers of the wind
through shattered panes,
you stood, a solitary figure
saluting against the fading light,
a beacon in the encroaching gloom.

It wasn’t the way you looked,
though your eyes held the last embers,
the last embers of a fire I desperately wanted to stoke;
it was the quiet strength in your stance,
the unspoken resilience
that radiated from you
like a faint warmth in the bitter cold.
In that moment, the crumbling world outside,
the chaos and the fear,
receded into a muted background hum,
for you became the single, unwavering point of focus
in my shattered existence.

My heart, a compass spinning wildly
in the magnetic storm of the apocalypse,
finally settled,
its needle quivering
with an undeniable pull towards you.

The whispers of the dying planet,
the creak of collapsing structures,
the distant wail of sirens,
the eerie silence that followed,
were all drowned out
by the silent, fervent promise
that bloomed within me,
and you.

I would navigate the treacherous fault lines
that had ripped apart continents,
my bare feet finding purchase
on the shifting earth.
I would swim through oceans
choked with the ghosts of sunken ships
and the oil slick tears of a wounded planet,
the salt stinging my eyes
but my gaze fixed on the distant horizon
where I hoped you might be.

I would trek across desolate landscapes,
where the skeletons of forests
clawed at the poisoned sky,
enduring the scorching heat
and the biting winds,
my only sustenance,
the unwavering image of your face
etched onto the back of my eyelids.

Each word you spoke,
even if directed to another,
was a precious melody I would hoard,
replaying it in the quiet moments
like a lifeline.
Each casual glance,
a fleeting spark in the pervasive darkness,
was a star by which I would navigate
the treacherous terrain of my longing.

The mere thought of you
became my constant companion,
a fragile map drawn in the ink of my devotion,
guiding me through the wreckage
of a world that had lost its way.

For while the world outside surrendered
to the slow, agonizing process of decay,
my own world, my very being,
had already pledged its allegiance,
completely and without reservation,
to the unbreakable orbit of your light,
a devotion that would carry me
to the very ends of this broken earth,
and beyond, if only you asked.