Flames flicker. Your eyes are silent
Every time.
First, I read passion
And warmth
Burning brightly,
So I trust you.
Then you crawl closer
Closer, closer—
Until your breath become a spell
Impossible to dilute;
A smoke intending to pollute,
While we consume the space—
The space that rests between
Our bodies.

Then I whisper, a hushed request
Ever so softly, ever so sparingly.
I long for that space—that comfort.
Please slide a bit further
Away;
I feel locked inside. You've come too close, testing my boundaries.
Your ears do not hear me.
Your touch stings my flesh,
Triggering

Loss.

I'm relinquishing slowly.
Hope’s desperation speaks its voice
Clearly this time, for whispers are
Brok—
En air.

My voice provokes you
Further, further.
You probe into me
Deeper, deeper,
Now even closer.
We've knit together
Tightly, firmly—
The weight suffocates.
Now I'm screaming:
No more, no more!
Please say you are through!
Each eye bleeding tears.
As I guard myself weakly,
A broken shield of defenses
Hangs hopeless, useless,
Swings freely by my side.
Are scars not transparent?
Is pain not external?
I probe your mind;
Each scar coats your tongue
In dehydrating saliva
Craving
A further, more engraving scar—
Deeper, deeper
Once
More, more, no—more,
Until it's…
No longer a mere touch,
Or a mere loss, but
A mere gnashing of air supply
Snatched by another lung
With no need for wind or breath.

But demand of supply
Forever absent, already consumed.
And as you slither back up,
Wipe off the layers
Of grime and guilt,
You gain glittered glory, poignant pride.
While scoffing at my fragile state.

A corpse stagnates here
Life once an explosion—
Now a mere ruin,
Collapsed from stolen life.
Used, drained, discarded.
And as it goes, my lips remain bound,
Permanent as
Bones under stone and dried blood.
For you've never escaped—
Each moment replays, beyond the silence,
Beyond the
Grave.
The load condemning,
Reminding me of
The weight.