Fire

My love burns white hot
Scorching me from inside out
Demanding release
Threatening to leave ash
Where once I stood.

The thorn twists, drives
Never relenting,
Never granting relief.
My bed is empty,
Yet my heart is overfull

You leave your imprint
My heart branded forever:
"This heart once belonged
To her and her alone"
Everyone sees
And laughs

They see the pain, the anger
They did not see the love,
The trust, the dependence
They cannot know your beauty
You show it to no one.

Your anger bared its teeth
Gnashing and cutting
Tearing into me.
But those wounds, though deep and cruel
Are not so dire or so deep as the marks of your lips.

Though given in love, they sting
They burn with passion and compassion
They remind me of what was
What could have been
Had you not gotten in your own way
Had I gotten my way

Your love was as ardent as it was fleeting
My love is as constant as it is painful
No matter what injuries you inflict, I remain
How strange that the one punished was the one who did less harm.
That the cold hear, rather than melting into love 
Created a kindred spirit for its suffering

I wake alone, calling love into the loneliness.
But I sleep with ghosts.
Ghosts of you, love.
Feelings, dreams, fears, hatreds.

Though I sleep with you
In a twisted way.
Your face doesn't greet me when I wake
I wake alone, lost and yet
It does not feel so different from our last days.