Shiver

Your bones like shivering Plexiglas
your skin like parchment paper
eyes the colour of the ocean depths
spilling over your porcelain cheeks
as you struggle to keep your rose-petal tongue
trapped behind sharpened teeth.

I can see the horror in your eyes
which will soon turn to rolling hate
and I know there is nothing I can say
to calm this raging tempest which is you
for you are a storm made flesh
created of hot winds and frosted mist
and I knew you would destroy me
but I could not turn away, for I also
knew, it was not your fault.

You were told since birth
that the only way to protect yourself
from boys like me,
was to be beautiful and destructive.
To grab them and kiss them
hard with your smoky lips.
To turn their dominance to ashes
in their mouths where they sit.

Your parents taught you to be
thunder and lightning
and I can teach you nothing else.
I've never been good at fighting
but these days have seen little else
so come ocean eye - hurricane,
destroy me.
You know no better - I know no else.