The Darker The Berry Poem by Onyi Ogwumike

The mirror cracks as I glare it down triumphant.
Now that it lays domed on your tongue, answer me this.
How sweet is your berry?
The one you raised on an ivory pillar while you bury the rest under slabs of ebony.
Little do you realize the glitter in the silk of the night sky, little do you realize that in fact the darker the berry the sweeter the taste.
Singeing your taste buds, your honey turns to poison.
While I watch, eyes wide. They scream while I stay silent. My mouth stitched shut,
My final warnings hang as faint ghosts in the rigid air.
I can hear the rip of reality as you fall,
Cutting through my fears and insecurities.
Cutting through my never ending sighs.
I shriek in silence as cracks form in your stature, as you fall.
And I’m free.
But as my chains unravel, I feel news ones grab me.
Holding me tight by the waist, restraining me from saving my dear idol.
The same idol that tied and bound me, the same one that destroyed me.
You pull me into a gentle embrace.
But my fears gleam through.
Cutting, biting, bruising, and tearing at your arms.
Tighter you grip, and I can feel the salty tears that bleed from your gems glide onto my face.
Through my cracks as well as yours, the salt finds its way stinging and burning.
I open my mouth and let it in, letting out a single dry squeak of the purest form of ecstatic agony.
I’m free and it feels so… good?