By Darren Vukasinovic
She was suffocating me
With her silence,
Staring through me
Out the window beyond us
Where once was freedom,
Making hang men from shadows
Around the window frame
And choking our memories
With the dangling chord
Of the Venetians
As distant clouds beyond
Stirred in her brewing storm,
A flock of ravens
Nested in her pupils
Painting them the darkest black
With their weather spent wings
Hoping to find shelter
Amidst her scorned fury
And I had sunk into
The dark sea of her gaze
Countless times before,
The first being falling in love
And falling into trauma
With the sheer mystery
Of that darkened beauty,
Making myself a shipwreck
To reach her treacherous shores
Which now I knew
Was my place of abandonment
In the pursuit of
The love and chaos
That is alluring
To two tortured souls.
The fading daylight
Peeled apart the room
As she sought to strip
The final layers
Of my shell away
By finding the precise poison
In words and gestures
She was so apt at conjuring
To sink me fully
Into her own sadness and despair.
And I boiled some tea
And offered her a cup
Whilst also seeking
To console myself
With a quaint dose
Of Earl Grey myself
As the room darkened
And her lips parted
Like the parting
Of biblical seas,
And whatever words
Should escape
I knew would be
My salvation and destruction.
And so, I poured that tea
And listened intently.