thanatos, lover

 

By Haiden DeShong

 

​

She looks so surreal

Glaring, putrefied skin

Her lashes have long since fallen out

But she flutters them for me

I can hear her, hushed whispers, plea of my name

A fragile syllable from such gentle lips

Nebulous, as a rose

 

Venom queen

Frigid and secretive

But she knows

I know

Her

A wild undead mirth

Tight as the girth of her coffin

Still she aches

 

She calls to me

An anchor

I tremble at her softness

That fragile beauty

Venomous lips

Always taunting, always

My little coquette

My sullen rose

You need me to mend

I need you to fill the black

 

Before my death.

After yours.

 

...

 

Waiting in an oblong box

Carnations shading eyelids

Lovely lavender

Gelid-pale

Faded broken white

I wonder how it feels

How soft that skin

How still and aching, in the bones

I want to feel

He takes my breath away

 

I wonder what was stolen from her

I think about how they can hold me

Let me seep into her skin!

Stop the corrosion--

A stench of rosemary, brief

The carnations fall from his eyes

We settle

We love

They encompass all.

 

...

 

Oh, how fragile!

Milky white, trailed slick with red

Alizarin, vermillion...

Oh, my dear!

How you must hurt

How your head must grow weary

How burdened you must be.

Oh, how long I’ve waited!

I want to mourn past your collapse

Feel your bone marrow mix with mine

In the macabre denouement of our love

Oh, my love!

Chaotic remnants of scars shorn through your skin

How harrowing the world must be…

I yearn for you, my savage, my beloved.

Oh, what beauty!

Your corpse holding me so steadily is more than I could ever dream.

 

. . .

 

When dark, how frantic

I should have liked to hold his hand

Fingers curled in mine

As he breathed his last breath

How I am mesmerized

Gazing into pitch pools

Like those where witches were sent to drown

He sinks

Like a frozen stone

Dead

And I lose myself in that decay

His eyes have never looked so beguiling.