Darkness

Darkness

Do you know that I once held your life in my hands?
For a sweet moment, I thought about closing my fingers
I thought about my hand curling into a fist
I thought about you

You now think you were in control
You think you had the power to decide
I gave you that sop to your tattered pride
I thought about you

Now you tell your friends about your escape
You congratulate yourself. They pat your back
And my hand on its own makes that fist
when I think about you

And my teeth ache, my pulse pounds,
I want to tear my chest gaping open
And let all the burning darkness out
if you trouble my thoughts

Because I know the truth, the lies you told
the story of your life, the rot beneath the smile
The whispered pleadings in the night
you thought no one knew

You will never understand why I walked away
You think you still hold my heart, not realizing
that mercy is not the same as indifference
I thought about you then, but never again.

Copyright 2015 by Stephen B. Bagley