Carbon

A Poem by Kristina Yoder

The chemicals around us
reacting and sparking
create something new-
without us meaning to.

Your sweetness
leaves me burnt,
and your darkness
tastes sweet.

The carbonic ash
that lingers in the air
every time your body gets near
tastes good and I take it in-
from the tip of my tongue
to the ends of my hair.

It goes all the way in
and I smile with ease
It absorbs all the poison in my body
and leaves me only with
"More, please."

Mama says to pause,
she says you're poison too
But she doesn't know the relief you bring
the sooty way you woo.

For us it's not the fire,
but what's left when it's gone-
the poisons we've swallowed from
what's been undone-
free from our bodies
and with our bodies now free-
we combust in each others' arms
and lay as ash,
eternally.