I hold you tightly as we dance

alone in your room

to music only we can hear.

I’m intoxicated by the smell

of your self-inflicted wound.

I try to swallow my hunger

(for once).

I’ve been a teenage girl

for centuries.

This is your first time around.

I’ll teach you.

I want to save you,

meek, dangerous creature.

Looking into your eyes

is like looking at my first love

again

from beyond

oceans of time.

At sixteen,

you’ve acquired the kind of loneliness

that usually takes a hundred years or more.

You tempt me in so many ways.

You want me to help destroy you,

to take the pain deeper.

I just want you,

all of your sadness and mystery,

reincarnation or not.

Even as I hate to let someone in

and complicate my existence.

We cling to each other

long after the last note.

Our darkness is not the same

but we share it anyway.