photo by Bedoya.

***

i once knew a monster. i loved him and he loved me too. we could talk for days without end. we could paint each other’s sentences.

sometimes, after a night filled with laughter that extended into every part of our body, monster would take my head and push it down a flight of stairs. he would curl up into a ball and sob afterwards. my head at the bottom of the stairs cursed him but my detached body hugged him. he didn’t mean it. it’s just that happiness writes white. i need my darkness. all you do is illuminate me, he said.

i loved monster and i didn’t know how to dissipate the brightness of that love. i made him too happy to write and he destroyed more and more of me with each passing day. eventually i became so broken that the pieces wouldn’t come back together. monster weeped and weeped and his sorrow began to form beautiful black, blue, red, and purple poetry.

monster lived miserably ever after until my love for him began to decay into a darkness that even monster couldn’t thrive in. he curled into a ball and sobbed when the colors of his poetry began to bleed. i didn’t mean it. i’ll put her back together, he said to the darkness. poor monster’s pleads didn’t work though. the darkness swallowed him whole.

–lissa