Shadows and Flames

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268 words
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I love you whispered in the gloom
Unprepared, I hesitate
A choice now looms before me
Declaration of love nonexistent
Or admittance of love's absence
A horrendous wound for you to endure
But one that is unavoidable.
The choice is not whether to hurt you
Instead, it is only when.

How to explain it is not your failing
The answer eludes me.
You feel you know me so well
Yet what you know is a fabrication
Less man than paper mache
A mask I hide behind.

I believe that I could have loved you
Once, long ago when I could still feel
I loved back then wholeheartedly
Gave up everything of myself for another
But love is a flame and I left mine unattended
Let it grow and swallow me
Consume until there was nothing left
Nothing but an inferno, and it blinded me
I never saw anything but the dance of the flames
And in them I found my ruin.

Now I have no love left to give
Not to you, nor anyone
I have been hollowed out
Full of nothing but darkness,
The burned relics of a forgotten age,
And the crackling remains of that old fire
For a blaze so grand can never completely die
Only transform, from love to something darker,
No longer can it warm, only make the shadows dance
Cavort and frolic in my empty heart
And lope through the ashes of the man I was.
And thus I am trapped endlessly
No longer a man, full of hopes and dreams,
But only an empty shell, full of shadows and flames.

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2 Comments
YDDYDDalmost 20 years ago
Shadows and Flames

This reads more like a letter than a poem until the last stanza.

More of an explanation than a "showing" of what you mean.

You might have a stronger piece if you just kept the last stanza,

and worked on making it stand alone.

You have some nice imagery there.

MerrymakerMerrymakeralmost 20 years ago
A lot to chew on...

Interesting thoughts on an impossible situation, makes you wonder(or that could just be me, heh). I really like "No longer can it warm, only make the shadows dance". ~Merry

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