Forbidden Fruit

Why do you look at me like that, boy?
Don’t you know this love is forbidden?
There are many girls or boys your age who would love you just as much as I.
Yet you offer the apple of knowledge to me freely
Persuading me for taste.

Why do you touch me like that?
It’s dangerous to love me that way!
Don’t you know the penalty is death if we are discovered!?
The sweet fruit we’ve shared will only appear rotten through the eyes of strangers.
For there are judgmental eyes everywhere, who’d pay to watch us burn for our sins.
Our love will kill us!
Do you not see that?!
So stop this nonsense now before we’re forced between the axe and the block!

Why do you hold me like this?
Are you not afraid of what others might think?
It’s unnatural for a boy like you to fall in love with an old man like me.
Your warm and comforting touch will only be wasted
So please turn back while you still have a chance.

Why do you kiss me like that?
Do you no longer see a teacher or father figure standing before you?
I’m trying to protect you, boy!
Can you not see I’m keeping you safe from me?
You make this so hard.
I don’t understand.
I’m just an old fool with too many dreams.
Yet you look to me as a source of inspiration and affection.

So tell me, lad… Why?
Why do you love me?

You wish to stay with me until my final days.
Make our love last longer than the battle scars we’ve been force to live with.
Chase away the nightmares that lurked over our shoulders.
Like the serpent guarding the sacred tree of Eden.  
Fill our days with endless wonder as we turn darkness into light together.

Now I ask myself…
Why do I love you?

My boy, you’ve helped lift me from my darkest times.
Saved me from the pain, fear, and grief of my inner consciousness.
The endless walls of my misty labyrinth had worn me down over time.
Bloodying my footsteps
Blinding my eyesight
Reducing my faith to a mere shadow of its former self.
I no longer knew which way was right anymore…

But then you came to me.
Embracing my broken body, like Mary Magdalen and her fallen lord.
Your kindness and love has been healing my wounds with each passing day.
Preventing my heart from bleeding out and giving up on life all together.
I suppose it was the time for the apprentice to finally teach the master a very valuable lesson.

You’ve become a hero I thought only existed in tales of fantasy, my boy.
I’ve lost too many wonderful people in the past.
Friends…
Family……
Lovers………
But I swear until the day I die, I will not lose you!

So please forgive me…
I will hold you like this.
I will kiss you like this.
But most importantly…
I will love you.