Dark Wings, Dark Words

She pretends to hear, to understand, to care

But she doesn’t want to

She stopped wanting to when she started remembering

What desire was, when the glow

That had nearly faded into the bitterness

That tainted her composure suddenly sparked

She nodded and smiled and called us right,

Burying deep the shades of gray

That splashed against her heart,

Correcting her words in her mind so we wouldn’t hear

As if we couldn’t tell

She charged us with resentment, judgment, and young age

But all we wanted, all we ever even needed,

Was to know that maybe we weren’t

The background of her life,

That maybe we helped with the glow

And weren’t just the ones who tied her down

And clipped her wings,

That our breath didn’t extinguish

The candle that burned so brightly for so long

All we needed to say was that we cared, we loved

Enough to worry,

And when we poured our thoughts, and our hearts to her,

That she would understand

But she only pretends, because we are not life, we are death

And the bitter taste in her mouth after the sweetness wore off.