Oh, it is so difficult to be loved
     when you know you do not
               deserve it.
I would destroy myself
     if not for you,
but to do so would destroy you, too.
I still scrub away at the edges of myself,
     but I cannot disappear
               with you.

I am not used to love
and you chase me down with it as a torch;
                I haunt you, a moth to your flame.
How can I survive this
                     fire that does not burn?


I cannot hold on to you;
I will not hold on to you,
     and yet you hold on
                              to me.

The fire keeps the shadow alive.

(c) 2022 Indigo Kenna