A Very Serious Altercation | Toxic Love

A beautiful butterfly

A fragile child with bruised wings

you found refuge in the caverns

of my troubled mind.

I kissed your broken hopes I warmed you with gasping breath

and prayed to the gods

that you would never leave me. You dazzled me

with a splash of bright colours then tried to shock me

and demanded my response. A coupling of minds, we fed

each other's need for loneliness.

At ease —we both knew

we were never destined to be lovers—

we revelled in the sin of happiness.

I was terrified.

Strike out first, push the button,

wreck, destroy.

Banish this deceptive dream.

I plunged into that pit and painted all thoughts of us on the walls in black.

How I miss your song.

Your face is now a prisoner

trapped in a hopeless screen.

I wonder, did I ever really

know you or was I just

a stranger in your brilliant life.

I put my head above the parapet and look at your happy world.

I speak to you but you stay silent

and I sink back into my lonely life.

Part of the mosaics cycle of poems