The sun lit up her eyes that morning,
little Marcia,
running along the beach
with her kite trailing behind her.

Redirecting my gaze from their
bright mocha brilliance,
I set back to my work in the sand.

It took me what seemed like hours;
but when my creation was finished
she came over to me, finally.

"Why are you building that?
sandcastles only wash away"

I smiled,

"Step inside.
I did it so that
for at least a few moments,
you could feel
like the princess you are."

That was my first kiss,
that day.

But my young princess was right,
such things
only wash away...










Marcia grew up,
and moved from guy to guy.

We stayed close,
I was always there to comfort;
always a sturdy shoulder to cry on.

She would always go on and on
about wanting to find a guy
who saw her as something more.
Maybe even
something more than she saw herself.

I never held onto a girlfriend for long,
they all said I seemed to
not even be there;
Like the whole time I was
Thinking of something else.

I was,
I always was...









Through all of her depression
and all of her pain,
I still looked upon
the same little girl I knew.
Still able to
Silence the world with a smile.








I was the one who found her
the night she attempted
to take her own life.

I rode in the ambulance with her,
clutching hard the cloths
I had wrapped around her wrists.

She still managed to smile at me
and it still managed to
mute the world.
No sirens,
nothing.
Just me lost in her eyes,
praying to anything and everything
that they wouldn't close on me.
Not tonight, not ever.








The morning she was released
I took her to the beach.

I walked with her across the sand,
towards the sunrise above the water.
It was just us on the shore,
so early in the morning.

I walked her to the castle
I had built overnight.
It was a work of art,
and big enough for the both of us.




She smiled at a memory,
"Why build a sandcastle?
They only wash away."




"Every princess needs a castle,
and it may wash away,
but make me your prince
and every morning
a new castle will await you here."




"I love you,
Marcia."