“Let us not be overthrown at the final test…
In sorrow we must go, but not in despair” *

and so passed the great king-
in the wake left broken, Arwen
who alone could not bear the grief
who gave all the gift of her kin and kind
to escape out the days into the undying lands
beyond the seeming reach of death; for a time;
but trade all, for this brief time of immaculate love-
above all;
now, with nothing left in this path
she departed out to her once splendid land
forlorn by time, deprived of the elven light, the evenstar – gone,
for some ages now-
for lothlorien had fallen into decay
and her, the last vestige of the place-
she lay down to die, as common folk do
just as Aragorn passed by choice, so she did too
in this far land, now of mortal men-
capable of the darkest plights
the darkest dooms
and yet the also-
the grandest heights, in the true light of love
and now, sacrifice, for the two have chosen, long ago
her eyes close,
knowing this day would come, one last thought
“goodbye my love, my last and only kiss- is yours”

*the last words of Aragon (before he chose to die), from JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. Sometimes I am inspired by such great works to write something, this particular scene actually does show up in the movie as Elrond reveals his daughter’s fate to her in a vision, one thing though, perhaps overlooked by some, Elves are not actually immortal, they are tied to the land, they can live an instant or millennia, the undying lands will sustain them for all time as the land exists, but at such a time that the earth ceases, so they too will perish as all things must.