Love & Tanacity - Archival Reproduction 18” x 24” $187 CDN
They were staring at each other in the gross part of the parking lot outside the dirtiest corner store in the city.
She was sitting on the curb. Mascara and cheap lipstick wiped across her face.
He was standing in a suit about thirty feet away…away from the needles and discarded bits of clothing, the stolen shopping carts, the smell of urine, the tweaker in the corner, cross-legged with his head between his knees and a leather belt around his arm.
He stepped closer. And with each step seemed to know her more. She sat up a little straighter.
It was almost midnight. And the music they played to keep the addicts and hookers and homeless souls away was too loud for words.
So he reached out his hand
and she stood up.
He tried to say something. She tried to read his lips. But it was too loud and too dark so she just sank into him and they slow danced across the asphalt.
It was tinny and popped and crackled. But it was Pachelbel’s Canon and it was beautiful.
Finally, the clock struck twelve. The store lights turned off and the parking lot fell silent. They were alone now
And he could say the thing he wanted to say all along.
It was the quote above the water fountain outside Ms. Gamble’s grade nine English class. But he was crying now and couldn’t say it properly, so he rested his forehead against hers in defeat and whispered, “You cannot save people….”
She put her hands on his chest and finished it for him, “You can only love them”.
They were still slowly turning in the silence underneath a Van Gogh sky
Remembering the love and tenacity they once had
And filling each other with hope.
-Oliver William Ray