They left the warring island,
To thrive beyond the sea.
Departure was a gamble,
An urgent need to flee. 

Hands entwined with bands adorned,
New forged vows still gleaming,
Their love will long endure. 

Lightning strikes, like gods, strode o’er the towering seas.
Poseidon’s swirling winds and waves crashed even on the lee.
All aboard were deafened, as the ship began to cave.
White sails fiercely thrashing, as frantic angel wings. 

Humanity and inert stores strewn wide across the land,
The ship broke o’er the Rubicon
to death upon the sand.
A bony wooden skeleton
adorned in battered rigging. 

Stunned amidst the oaken crypt,
 a woman stands alone,
Translucent hands have gripped
the cold into her bones. 

Did she alone escape the storm?
Where is her lover’s form? 

With heavy skirts encumbered, she moves through sand and sea.
Eyes dart among the Castaways, Survivors, and Deceased.
Looking for the one, the one she’s newly wed,
She spies his golden coat and sees where he has bled.
Finding love alive, but in a bloody sandy bed. 

Hands entwined with bands adorned,
New forged vows still gleaming,
Their hearts endure together. 

Her ice-cold hands betray her, loose falls the wedding ring.
Reaching for the jewel she finds his dagger’s sheath.
Alone she can’t exist, without him likewise being.
Dagger’s blade reflecting light, she draws it from beneath.
Hands entwined they guide the blade into his heart’s last beat.
Now, two rings, in stillness, rest upon the reddened sand. 

His urgent need compelled him to leave with her forever.
His love for her expands, as they now again endeavor
to depart this earthly plain complete, but now together.
She stands, transparent angel, reaching towards his form. 

With love and adoration their hands entwined once more
Two souls and shadows now are bound
Their souls endure forever… found.

Biography: Marian Hesse is a professional musician actively involved in writing and photography.

Marian began taking classes at Aims when it was only a few small buildings cowering in
the shadow of the water tower in the 1970’s. The classes covered liberal arts core
requirements at the University of Northern Colorado where she majored in French Horn
music performance. After touring world-wide with the Chestnut Brass Company of Philadelphia, she won a Grammy award and made 22 recordings with the CBC, and eventually returned to
Greeley in 2003 to teach horn at UNC.

Aims has grown substantially since those early days and Marian started to take classes
to follow her other interests in writing and photography, with the bonus of the
outstanding gym at Aims. She has enjoyed watching the community and campus grow
and thrive, now in the shadow of the Ark of the Aardvark.