Darling

I am in love with you. How freeing, to finally say it! I want to throw myself from the sharpest height and proclaim it over huge valleys! I want to shout it until my voice runs dry, and then for it to burst from my head; my hands, my feet! I love you, I love you, I LOVE YOU! I love you. Then why is the crowd so silent; the upturned face so still? A quiet blink, the shake of a head; A closed mouth and clenched jaw. Do not they know the joy? Can’t they feel the beauty and jubilation of this perfect moment? Judgment is aroused; the hideous monster stirred from his lair. Darkness is coming, and I withdraw into my heart; bolting the doors and fastening shutters; preparing for the oncoming storm. A fierce gale stirred up from the stomach of the Earth; ferocious battering on the walls of my tempered home. Flashes and thunder; acidic hatred raining down upon my shelter. I huddle into the corner. My knuckles grow white and my eyes squeeze tightly. Shame trickles into my home; pooling in the corners of my warmth, then slowly building; filling the light with darkness, and heightening, heightening, until I can no longer contain it. It bursts out of the corners, and throws itself into my blood; my ears and eyes; my core. I am overwhelmed. I begin to drown; the air stolen from my weary lungs. Come back to me. Come back! But they have left your body, open, propped up against a streetlamp. Shining red; rubies of blood flowing across your brow and your heart. Come back, I whisper; they’re gone now. But you are beyond my reach; your body limp. Come back. I love you.