When the poison speaks

This is about the rejection of temptation

When The Poison Speaks

By Shawn P Cassidy

Hey there, lonely girl

I rise where nightmares breed,

a serpent made of hunger,

a god carved out of need.

I slither through your silence,

I coil around your doubt,

I whisper in your ribcage

till your courage flickers out.

I promise you a softness,

a quiet you can keep,

but every drop I offer

is a grave disguised as sleep.

I am the pale seduction,

the venom dressed as cure,

the shadow in your bloodstream

that waits for you to blur.

I watch you when you weaken,

I strike when you are low,

I feed on lonely moments

you never let them know.

But you -"

you rise against me,

your fire thin but real,

a blade of human stubborn

I never learned to steal.

You tear through my illusions,

you see the rot beneath,

you face the beast that hunts you

with nothing but your teeth.

“No,” you say "

and the word becomes a blade,

a cut across my shadow

where my false salvation frayed.

I stagger in your silence,

I fracture at your will,

a god reduced to ashes

that never learned to kill.

You don’t walk out triumphant,

you don’t walk out reborn

you just stand there, breathing,

refusing to be worn.

And I

I fade into the corners,

a hunger left unheard,

undone by something simple

as a single spoken word.

© 2026 Shawn P. Cassidy. All rights reserved