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Writer's pictureYours Truly

Pyromaniac



~

⚠️Trigger Warning: The following poem contains subject matter pertaining to suicide and self-harm⚠️

~


I am the prodigal daughter

of Hestia,

Goddess of the hearth.


But this time,

I will not be returning

home.


Don't you get it?


I've burned it down

already.


Perhaps there shall exist no

redemption

for my incendiarism.


Perhaps there is no saving

a pyromaniac


from


her pyromantic sins


from getting drunk

off molotov cocktails


to baptizing her

melancholic fingers

in candle wax


to thrusting her head

in the oven,

where carbon monoxide

steals away her remaining

strands of breath.


Tell me is it still arson

if it is yourself you are

setting on fire?--


I wear lighter fluid

atop my collar bone

like it is fragrance


rouge my lips

with gunpowder,

every word an angry bullet

ricocheting off my teeth

and back down my throat.


I am circus act of a girl,

swallowing my own fire

just to survive


Ironic, isn't it?


Because for me,

survival entails

burning myself alive.


Soon,

I will have no teeth left

to bite these bullets:


This sadness.


This anger


rises from the

chasms of my soul

like bile.


Strange--


I always thought

myself to be the

epitome

of darkness.


Perhaps I simply

lured

the darkness towards me

like an eclipse of moths--


and you know

what everyone says about

moths & flames,

don't you?


It's funny now

that I think about it:


how the stars also

inhabit darkness,


how when I wish upon them,

I am really only wishing on

fire.


And where there is fire,

destruction is sure to

follow.


It is no wonder

all of my dreams--


those of


love.


magic.


verse.


have shuddered to

ash.


I make snow angels

in these ashes,

stretching my tongue out,

the remnants of

desire

scorching my tastebuds.


Here I lie,

like an extinguished

cigarette,

my use fulfilled and discarded.


But the stars

aren't too fond of

nicotine


even though

the very atoms

that comprise my essence

contain the stuff of galaxies.


But, oh , how these galaxies have

evaded

my brooding grasp.


When my fire

begins to dwindle,

I do whatever it takes

to re-ignite what has been

lost--


lap at the iridescent

gasoline puddles

that wade along

lonely

street corners;


sear campfire stories

across my palm lines

(I try to read

my future,

but the smoke

hangs too heavy);


strike matches across

my petrified wrists


just to feel something.


After all,

what am I without

my hellfire--


they could not

save me from it;


they could not

save me

from burning.


But perhaps the

true peril

was never in burning,

but in


burning out.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Image Source:

Megan Fox licking flame gif (n.d.). [image] Available at:: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?l=spanish&id=1226269176  [Accessed 30 Jul. 2018].

 
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