an AI made poem, not all together fictional, for all it is decidedly a thing that hovers between wakefulness and dreams.
it is the month of the harvest moon
time of pleasure and plenty
silken scarves, the handfasting
a year and a day, the troth
not quite the year and a day
but close, for almost one year past
through tears and amidst lies
the skein was set and
my hand removed it not
the quiet pledge, given
to the man
who does not exist
it is an illusion, of course
cruel – a turn upon words that
finds meself bound
utterly and impossibly
no longer do i deny it
here, still, i stand
for i said i would
almost full the season’s turning
almost as full as this well
the well by which i stand
it has been many things
over time
a wishing well, a shared well,
a dry well, but no longer dry
i have filled it as best i can,
never good enough
i know this because
all the world says so
i listen, i hear, how can i not
but i do not move, do not turn
the whims and wind, vox humana,
are not my care
let them laugh, label it as they will
the words are weightless, unlike
this promise
forgotten by all but me
it seems
i dreamt one night
that he stood near, that he
watched me draw water from the well
soothe my face and hands in it
briny as it was
but he is not here
how can he be
true to his name, evermore
as true as i have been
will be
a year and a day is yet
three days before my birthday
i’d call it easy to remember
but it is more like
impossible to forget
the first splash of water
the sudden absence
cold like winter in midsummer
the sounds of hateful words
stones in the well
sharp and without mercy
silk fluttering down
to hang, abandoned
all the words of long paths
all the oaths of shared walking
forgotten, denied, disdained
i will not forsake them
i will not forsake him
the man who does not exist
i wait for him, here
until he remembers that
his name is not mine
until he remembers
his name is only true as
long as he believes it so
for all i speak it,
i have never believed it so
and for the vow and this faith
i remain
and will remain
and will believe in him
until he finds the way to
believe in himself and
by it, find me