I thought your eyes were warm like
the sun, but it was a pleasant lie;
you took all the heat and kindness of those
around you, pretended it was yours
until there was nothing left but bitter cold
and a line of broken hearts.

The silvers of influence
spill from the moon’s palm,
soft over skin warmed
by a beach day’s hush.

Here, paradise breathes —
not loud, but in sighs,
where seafoam curls
around ankle and ache.

Your gaze, dark as onyx,
doesn’t just look —
it lingers.
A smooth promise,
ripe with unspoken tides.

And I —
I unravel,
seduced by salt air
and the weight
of being seen.

🎀  𝒩𝒶𝒾𝓃𝒶 𝒥𝒶𝓃𝒾  🎀

I'm the shadow,
   shuddering

                               what can I see

within the darkness...

Chloe
by Michael R. Burch

There were skies onyx at night ... moons by day ...
lakes pale as her eyes ... breathless winds
******* tall elms ... she would say
that we'd loved, but some book said we’d sinned.

Soon impatiens too fiery to stay
sagged; the crocus bells drooped, golden-limned;
things of brightness, rinsed out, ran to gray ...
all the light of that world softly dimmed.

Where our feet were inclined, we would stray;
there were paths where dead weeds stood untrimmed,
distant mountains that loomed in our way,
thunder booming down valleys dark-hymned.

What I found, I found lost in her face
while yielding all my virtue to her grace.

Originally published by Romantics Quarterly as “A Dying Fall.” Keywords/Tags: Night, onyx, skies, love, ***, sin, thunder, lightning, virtue, grace, moons, lakes, winds, mountains, Chloe

Midnight claustrophobia dreams,
                           where the charcoal
suffocation presses on my chest.

My expiration has no date of
                elapsing.

But the animation of my expiration
            still lingers,
and I hold on to that moment.

You are my collection of recollection,
            and in the onyx covering
  that the luminosity clings too,


we suffocate on every


                  exhalation of the other.

Please hide me...

    It knows I'm here!


It's waiting till the light
Illumiates, so I can see it.

Never hiding in the onyx.

It wants me to see it,
Knowing that it knew I



                  Saw it.


You think the light
     Grants you sevatude...

Playing keys you don't
         Know have a meaning.

They want you
     To know there coming...


Sunsets hide there intentions.
     They want you to know
What's about to happen.


They want illumination,
    So you know whats about to digest

      every moment.

Your screams are numbed.
   But inside they hear you scream.