Survival and Desire

Rain claws down the windows,

its rhythm a litany of hunger,

and the candles spit smoke as though choking

on the weight of their own illumination.

Survival and desire amalgamated

and turned an aphotic eye inward,

where I find you

not as solace, but as contagion.

I watched my expectations dismantled and dismembered

by the harsh and starving dogs of reality,

yet it is you who feeds on the marrow of my quiet,

your absence gnawing louder than your touch.

Truths orbit like hypergiant stars,

burning to ash in a void too cruel for prayer.

Still I drink from you,

a chalice of venom disguised as wine,

because thirst is older than wisdom.

We are what we are,

and all creatures must eat;

you consume me as flame consumes parchment,

and I call it love

because destruction has always been beautiful

in the candle's last gasp of light.