nightingale falling_alone Weren’t you the one who always had a song to sing, or hummed some little tune? It was never the words that mattered much or whether you sang in tune. To tell you the truth the words were forgotten all too soon. I never thought twice about them, but your voice continued to linger in the air. It always brimmed with confidence, laughter, and happiness throughout. That was what I remembered, the joy. I remembered the contentment, how you were just happy to sing. Perhaps I shouldn’t have said such things; let such things slip. There must have been a blush. I looked up to try and gauge a reaction to my babble. I can see myself reflected against black pupil, and I wonder whether or not you were that person I longed to be. And I looked down again at the sneakers on my feet. Blue and grey, just like the heavens before dawn. You confirm my idle wonderings then with a No you choked out, then you repeat. No, you were the one to sing. I had—I had always told you to stop. I think you had wanted to cry just then, but you didn’t; you were stronger. A tear had already made it halfway down my cheek when I glanced once more at your face. I imagine that you, too, must have seen yourself staring and wondering whether that confidence would ever be back. 040330 ... from now on "the dark is my delight" 041030 ... monee "...Florence Nightingale lived a long and remarkable life. Although she is known as the founder of modern nursing and one of the most famous women in history, few people know that she spent the last half of her life confined to her home and often bedridden, suffering from an illness similar to what we now call ME/CFS (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)..." http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/4277/nightingale.html 041210 ... monee "...Our Foundation is named after Florence Nightingale, who fell ill with an infectious disease during her service in the Crimean War. She then developed a disease process that was indistinguishable from M.E./CFS. Despite her severe disability, and the fact that she was a virtual shut-in for the rest of her life, she went on to reform both public health and health care, helping to bring medicine and particularly the care and treatment of the ill patient into the twentieth century..." http://www.nightingale.ca/nighta.html 041210 ... monee i say way to go florence! 041210 ... anomalous may_12th 050502 what's it to you? who go blather from