Three flames

First there was the pain

That shattering sensation that tears you to shreds

That agony that comes with the sudden void

The emptiness that hits you like a train

That something so vital, so beautiful

Can be taken so easily, and so brutally

And leaves nothing but wreckage in its wake

And in that void, darkness enters

Creeping silently, coiled like the cobra

Fangs bared, ready to strike

And let that poison flow into every vein,

Every pore, every corner of your soul

It consumes you, but does not kill you

No, not death, but wrath, is that poison

Bitter, twisted anger

And you yield, welcome it in

And you burn.

The second is the madness

The blind lunacy of denial

That realisation of your own utter folly

In the face of all reason and common sense

Hindsight laughs at you as you fall

The crushing knowledge that it was all there

All so obvious – all so clear

The betrayal, the idiocy, the trust undeserved

And you retreat into the shell you have become

As the demons knock at sanity’s door

And you open it, let them in

Let them take your last drop of faith

And fashion a mirror from it for you

So that the face of the fool is known to you

That you might come to loathe it

And you burn.

The last is the best and worst of them

The devotion of the spurned

The compassion of the scorned

Warmth undeserving

Given willingly, against good wisdom

Such nobility as can only come from angels

The terrible beauty of forgiveness

The angel that bled, but chose to heal you instead

The angel that now soars before you

Shining her light upon your weary brow

As she flies to better lands

And leaves you to your lonely shores

That is your punishment and your salvation

And it burns

For the last is truth.