Debris

I once was whole when there was life in the street
And love built in me a home,
Where the hearth-warmth once was cheery-sweet
And on the dressing-table lay a comb.
There once were pictures on these walls
And laughter echoed through the doors
I miss the footsteps down the halls
The quilts and rugs upon the floors.
For darkness fell and all these things
Were taken, in a flash:
Screaming sirens, wailing shells—
Innocence's ugly knell
Have left me here in ash and dust
Wooden frames broken, nails left to rust.

The walls that once held what was whole and bright,
The warm lamplight and kisses goodnight
Stand no more—
In crack and crevice, the wild flower blooms
Where once I nestled life in rooms.

{Claire}

The Curse of Being

I love you, but I must kill you.

Your drunken delirium of colour will fade.
My gossamer touch, butterfly kisses,
fingerprints on your skin are your death:

Your life, for your art.

We are told, from our birth, that you, your kind, are prey.
Keep your distance, guard your heart; do you want it to break
every single time? Take them as liars, sweet ones, pretend
You do not see the ardour in their eyes, hearts razing to the ground
for you.
If you fall, you fall spiralling, and you will never hunt,
Never live again—
You will hate what you are.

Don't bend to them, to what they call love:
Be strong as steel,
Hard as rock.

But you, your soul singing through your script, move me;
lose me in our brief but fiery ceili.
Pure metal gives, igneous rock melts:
I, at the end, must face the fading of your haunting,
brilliant eyes,
Watch you wither like the cereus:
here tonight, and dead by dawn.

My greatest failure is love.

I looked back, I let my heart be swayed, moulded,
marked by your hand:
Never hunt, never live again

And once before so proudly fay
How gladly now would I burn my wings
set myself among mortal things
to love you yet another day.

{Claire}