Ignorance Is Bliss Poem by Onyi Ogwumike

I hate you.
You are what binds me, what destroys me, what angers me to no end.
Yet I love you, sometimes more than I love to breathe.
I don’t think I love you as much as I love your idea,
What you could be for me, what I could make this.
So call me selfish, call me dirt, call me hideous.
I will swallow your venom like honey,
Your poison like water.
Taking in every last drop, till your exhausted.
Its funny because
I swore I’d never cross this border again.
There it lays etched in the sand,
The difference between self-control and a guilty pleasure.
I don’t even notice me crossing this screaming crimson line,
I’m too focused on the anxious pump of my heart as you lead me over it.
Too focused on the way our fingers interlock, on the warm hum of life in your hand.
Too deep already in ignorance.
Too deep in bliss.
I sink into the murky, pond water.
The fish nibbling on my toes.
I forget,
I’m lost.
I left my seatbelt on the shore.