BasilHayden

There was a road where feet walked all the time.

Meteors rained from the sky one night

and a star fell into the road’s cracks.

Out of it sprouted a leaf

that soon sheltered ants when it rained.

In return for her kindness, they gathered water droplets for her to drink.

The ants named her Basil

after the tender love they nurtured amongst them.

Growing up, she crawled on the ground in search for a tree.

She wanted to spread her woody roots and climb

but she kept on being trampled as people bustled about.

They often picked her small hard-pressed yet shiny beads.

So as she grew, her head bowed lower and lower.

One day the road closed and she was left on her own.

Black seeds caught onto a deer’s leg fell in between her dense hair.

It grew and spread amongst her.

"Good day, fair maiden! I’m Hayden,"

the proud thicket presented himself.

Basil stood silent.

She was surprised at the sight of his mass that came to rival her growth.

She shook his hands playing around her hair.

Lonely for a long time, she felt relieved to have his company.

His sticky hands, feet, and mouth caught small sap-suckers and leaf eaters she dread, offering her safety.

As he came close to her, Basil embraced him tightly.

Feeling warm, they clung to each other.

Spellbound by their match,

the curious sun glared at them so brightly that Hayden’s belly dried up.

It split into two claws and horns came out of it.

Saddened by his dark turn, the sun hid his face.

In his absence, the skies started to cry.

Shivering, Basil and Hayden snuggled

but grew into a tangle that kept their heads bumping together.

They fought each other to keep their heads whole.

On days that the skies stopped wailing,

water from the leaves of a tree nearby dripped on Basil’s bulbs,

spluttering sounds that gave her fever.

At his wit’s end, Hayden opened his mouth and let out a sigh of disgust.

Out came foul breath that formed into dark clouds.

They reached Basil’s ears and clapped around her without cease.

Their words beat her black and blue until her eyes crossed.

Their noses protruded as long sticks poking her head.

She inched forward to escape,

spreading herself in deeper breaths.

But Basil struggled as Hayden’s horns grazed her stem.

They keep brushing against Basil’s hands until they bruised.

Her hands torn apart, they bled a sticky foul-smelling pus.

It oozed so thickly that it sipped through,

blocking Hayden’s ears.

"You stink!" Hayden stirred.

His word stuck to her wounds more than its putrid smell.

But Basil’s heart is covered with a lamb’s blood

that speaks to her each time her heart hurts.

"Please forgive him. He does not know what to do."

The blood prays each time the curses he hurls pull Basil’s hair in all directions.

She held her heart out to Hayden until her fingertips were frozen cold,

her feet still planted in icy waters.

She hummed, "I forgive you... I love you... I forgive you... I love you."

hopeful that one night Hayden might hear her.

The following nights, frogs came by in answer to her sweet calls.

"We love you, Basil! Forgive yourself, Hayden!" They sang to them both.

At times their webbed fingers reached out to make space between the two, brushing Hayden’s horns aside to Basil’s relief.

They enjoined her in chorus to sing to Hayden, "I love you... I love you..."

encouraging her to sing louder, with more air in her lungs,

until she was able to belt higher.

Basil’s voice soon began to clear Hayden’s ears.

Comforted by her sweet melody that sought to overcome the melancholic splashing of the rain,

his heart whispered back "I love you."

But by that time, Basil’s heart has gone breathless.

At the coldest of nights, when the wind sucked away her air,

it became as hard as a snowflake

until it cracked a little in surrender.

"I hate you," she spoke to the winds.

Hayden is now at a loss for words

to stop breaking her heart and nourish her back to health.

He is stuck embracing her with his thorns just to keep her heart and his belly warm.

He subbed, "Forgive me... I love you... Forgive me... I love you..." and lulled her to sleep.

The sun, woken by the sound of his cries, pushed open his grey curtains.

He peered into the road, his brilliance revealed to scorch Hayden’s horns.

Basil looked up to the sun.

His white light broke open the truth in her heart,

which cried, "I forgive you... I love you..."

Basil’s hands then pressed Hayden’s heart,

squeezing her red essence into it.

Hayden felt a warmth spread inside him, and his heart began to beat with strength.

Basil’s bulbs kissed him for the last time,

falling one by one.

Her pollen tears touched his thorns

as her petals soothed his arms.

The sun shone his rays upon them, urging Hayden to climb the tree.

Basil’s body in his arms, he followed the path traced by the sun.

He crept to hug the tree,

planting Basil’s tears upon its roots.

As he held his ways upright,

he bloomed bright cream heads.

He swayed to the rhythm of the tree until he turned brown,

scarred by the heat of the sun and the wind’s beating.

One day as he ached to move, he felt a vine slip underneath him and curl around his waist.

"Good morning, Papa. I love you!" Small shy bulbs resembling Basil raised to meet him, held by his last embrace.

"I love you! I love you! I love you!" They sang,

their laughter clinging to his final breath.