Harm Poem by Oliver Roberts

Light waited long for you, alone and lost,
sheltering homelessly outside my house.
Hung with moths and cold, it held closely itself,
tracing yellow walls and the footsteps of the night.
Without you it had to pretend you, and shuddered.

You stole the light away when you came here to fight,
banging your heart on my door at midnight, tearful, burning.
I took you inside with me and our sorrowful darkness,
to hide your mistake with mine, to hear us fade and vanish.
We loved with senseless anger, then silence and shouting;
our hands, our faces, our youthful limbs of heated shadow,
the way you mouthed what you still had left inside to give me;
with the spasms we smirked and watched each other’s demise.

You left before morning, still wearing our celebratory skins;
I pictured you running home, swatting at the twilight with this guilt.