About Emeralds and the Setting Sun..

"Did I ever tell you I was married once?"
She looks at me oddly from across the table in the sunlit cafe.
"Yes."

Very different life. Seems like it happened to someone else. Maybe it did.

She was beautiful. The way the sun lit her hair and smile when she worked in the yard. The way she loved animals so much, that those commercials about animal cruelty always drove her uncontrollably to tears.
Every single time.

She was even darkly beautiful when we fought. At the end we fought a lot.

I never really stopped loving her.
Don't think you ever completely do.

We never really learned to talk.
We never really learned to listen.

Something was wrong.
I wanted to listen, and she had nothing to say.
She wanted to listen, and I lost the ability to speak.

We started as lovers, and ended up as roommates.
I spent the last month sleeping in the basement.
I really wasn't helping matters any.

She wanted our family to be one of faith. I fought so hard against this at the time.
I fought against a lot of things. We both did.
Used to be so stubborn.

Ironic, since faith is so important to me now.

"Do you regret leaving?" it's a tough question. Not an easy answer to this.

I pause.

No, because she is loved by the kindest of men now. She is his universe. She was always worth that.
Funny that he inspires me to be a better man.

Even after our season in a setting sun had ended, she still had love and care for me. We worked hard to become friends.
We didn't abandon each other or deny the others existence.

6 months ago, I dragged my brain out of the bottle for the last time.

She was there when I needed it most. We talked of many things that night.
There were tears and apologies.
There was healing.

I wrote many lovely songs for her throughout a decade.
They are all true.