Consider

Consider, for a moment, that time has stopped.

At the same moment, consider also that you are an outsider. You are watching from above, something that is rarely seen. Two people, a man and woman - whose names do not matter and never will, for they are everyone - are lying together. Still. Uneventful. Brimming with something close to adoration.
But remember time. Remember that it has paused.

It has stopped. But these two are dying as it breaks in proceeding. In its stillness these souls are aging, withering away, and slowly being suffocated – though they know nothing of this.

Watch them kiss. Watch his hand reach up and touch her face like a soft wind trailing in from a window – one that will be gone in the morning. For he is a wind that is there only under the circumstance that the window is opened, and very rarely does such a miracle occur. Later – when the dawn comes – the window will have been shut. That is the way it is, with him.

Watch her smile. Take care to observe the way that she is allowing her trueness to shine through that blissful turning up of her lips. Realize that in this moment, she is alive. Know that she is happy, that time has stopped, that he is a wind.

Consider, if you will, the fact that his eyes are shut, and that hers are not. Or that his hand pulls away and her smile fades a little: for he is not only wind, but he is sunlight – and she is the daisy that searches desperately for his rays.

Be aware that clouds block the way, most of the time.

Frown.

Watch her become suddenly aware of something. She touches her face, where his hand was only moments before, and reaches her own hand out to his face instead. She is making a pact. Her thumb strokes at the side of his cheek, declaring that if he pulls away, she will reach out. If he hides, she will search. If the window closes, she will wrench it open.

Realize that he is troubled, and that he always was, and that he always will be. Know that he cannot love, for he is afraid, and that he cannot touch her much longer, for then it will be harder to pull away. Know that they are doomed.

Do you sense time becoming restless?

Watch his face settle into a grim determination as he allows himself to hold her, just this once, and then never again. Hear the words that send shivers through her body.

'I can hear your heartbeat.'

Know that these are the most beautiful words that she has ever heard.

Watch, listen, and wait. See how they fall asleep, and how only minutes afterwards his body unconsciously pulls itself away from her – for even in sleep he is fearful. Hear the birds sing as the morning arrives, and feel the pain that she feels when she wakes up and he is no longer there. Realize that she knows now that, in a way, he never was.

Consider, for a moment, that time has stopped. And at the same moment know that though it has stopped, it is actually continuing on in a painful, never ending circle of forever-ness. Know that, in reality, time never stops. Not for anyone. For time only seems to pause in the moments that we attempt to cling to. It may slow – or so it seems. But it will never fail to proceed.