Faded Green Eyes

The young man had lost everything. You could see it in his posture, his frown, and most of all, his eyes.

"She was a lesson you know..." came an elderly voice to his left. Looking up from his coffee, his eyes met those of an old man. Gray, weather beaten, dressed for a time not of his own, yet exuding a sense of wisdom and kindness from behind those strangely familiar, faded, green eyes.

"Excuse me?" he replied, looking to his right to see if it was someone else intended for the comment.

"She was a lesson along the way. Whoever she was, however long it was, whatever happened. It was one big lesson for you. And just like at the end of the school year when you hated leaving your friends for the summer. School will be back again soon enough. A new person to learn from. Trust me." The old man smiled, like something more was there to be said, but no more came.

"I guess its pretty obvious what I'm staring into this cup about huh?", he wallowed.

"Life is a cup for love. Mine's gone from empty to full and back again many times. That's what we do; we drink it all up until we're happy drunks, then have a little painful hangover, and then we pour another glass for ourselves from the bottle of hope. The trick is to drink slowly, and refill before you ever sober up. Very few people have ever figured that part out. The rest will just have to learn the hard way."

He pondered this assessment deeply for a moment as he stared again into the pitch black surface rippling inside his mug. His own green eyes reflecting back, off colour. With a snap he looked up to ask the old man his name.

But he was gone.