the crisp burnt wind
cuts through your parched lungs as
filthy sweat runs down your back
you gasp and you moan and you scratch and you groan—
you relish the rough touches of her hands
on your neck
you breathe
you breathe
you breathe

it's always been like this, you think.
she whispers in the dead of the night,
like the devious, bold Lilith,
and you blindly follow.
without fail, like a fool,
you walk her footsteps,
feeling like you're running on air.
you know what's happening,
what she's doing--
yet you still do as she wishes.

outside your window,
the branches of the trees you see
look like skeletal hands waving at you,
laughing at your idiocy.

a sudden warmth
causes you to arch your back
like a lover in heat,
your tongue peeks out from your lips
and the breeze catches on the sweat on your brow,
cruelly teasing you.

drifting through the atmosphere,
she lets you come close
but stops as your muscles tighten.
her breath ghosts over your painfully tense chest—
you reach for her,
but she disappears
as if she was born from a fire extinguished,
silenced,
by the wind.

dawn breaks,
and the circle is still unbroken.

you both sprung from the greens,
and now you have been wrapped in the color of rust.