Sweet Poison

A love that never was, but never fades.

I hate the power you have over me-

How your voice curls around my ribs

and makes a home where it was never welcome.

Your name humming in my chest like a hymn

I never meant to memorize.
You speak, and the world softens,

as if it, too, believes your lies are lullabies.

Your words make my resolve turn soft,

like wax left too close to the flame.

I dream of you like a sin I can't confess,

caught between guilt and hunger.

You linger in the half-light of my thoughts,

where my heart is foolish enough to hope,

and my mind is too tired to stop it.

Your words- those sweet, forbidden things-

slip through me like warm rain,

and I let them, even knowing

they bloom only in shadows.

You promise nothing,

yet I cling to every almost.

This is where longing lingers,

and love is both wound and comfort-

a tenderness that cuts too deep to cure.

If only I could unlove you,

tear you out like a thorn,

or cage this longing where it can't breathe.

But each time I try, you return-

a sigh in my dreams,

a ghost that smells like home,

a name my soul still whispers

when no one's listening.

I tell myself you are only a ghost,

a figment that should have faded,

but every dream makes you real again-

your voice dripping honey,

your hands rewriting my edges

until I am shaped by your memory once more.

These whispers are meant to be nothing,

they are venom dressed as velvet

and yet I drink them still, knowing better.

The poison rewinds my heart

to the moment I first mistook desire for destiny.

I wish I could forget you cleanly,

burn the thought of you to ash

and scatter it somewhere nameless.

But each time you whisper my name,

the ashes glow again,

and I am yours-

for one more heartbeat

I swore I wouldn't give.

-Koii