Conversation Hearts

I sit beside a cup of hot tea 

Watching the clouds sift icing sugar

Over the city landscape turned Candyland-scape

With a bag of conversation hearts

The calendar turns a page

And suddenly everyone has a sweet tooth

I breathe in a tendril of spicy vanilla chai steam

And open the bag of conversation hearts

I pinch the corner and tug upwards
And watch the pastel coloured confectioneries
Spill eagerly over my tabletop

Sweet, giggling conversation hearts

I smile back at them, remembering
Sparkling eyes and knowing smiles
Sleepovers and fantasy worlds and us
All thanks to conversation hearts

The sweetest hearts I've ever known
Taught me that love comes in all colours
Equally sweet and sincere
Like conversation hearts

So this is for you, my angels
I wish only the best for you
And I hope together forever is true
Because I miss your conversation hearts

And of course my thoughts
Would not be complete without you
The mere mention of your name brings to life
A thousand conversation hearts

Like the draft outside my window
Sends snowflakes flurrying into the minty winter air
You have the the same effect on the
Heartbeats of conversation hearts

As they flutter back down to reality
I line them up in chronological order
Your words diffuse through my chest
And bond like the text on conversation hearts

My fingertips graze the candied crossroads
And bring your words to life
I realize the journey is worth far more
Than individual conversation hearts

And as the afternoon fades to evening
I find the answers to all my questions
Mapped out on my tabletop
In the simplicity of conversation hearts

I push back my chair just in time to see
A pair of shooting stars streak through the sky
Leaving a trail of pixels behind
A dotted line of conversation hearts

Set Fire to Fire

You.

You were never one for flowing words, but the love that dances within you does so with more grace and sincerity than the greatest poet could ever express. Like a fire, it knows no limits.

I.

I have always been drawn to darkness. I have always embraced its poisonous seduction and let the bitter smoke from its fires swirl around my fingertips. To me, fire has always been akin to power, passion, danger, rage, and destruction, because that is how my fires have always burned. I saw a pulse within those fires, a pulse I longed to blend with my own; a steady, glinting pulse that fed my fascination for their mystery.

You.

You, too, had that same alluring mystery, touched by the same anxious pulse. You drew me in and captivated me with it. I was spellbound by the passion that coursed deep inside your veins, accented by a hint of danger. You pulled me closer and closer, but as you neared my heart, I began to notice something. Your pulse had changed itself. Or maybe, it had changed mine. The sharpness of the power and rage that was so characteristic to the fires I knew was smudged away, replaced by an airiness I never thought I possessed. For the first time in ages, I felt warmth, and light. Somehow, to the darkness that once surrounded me, you brought a spark and let it bloom. And how it glowed! A new fascination washed over me, as I became engulfed in the light. All the beauty I had known in the dark multiplied itself by a thousand and all of a sudden I could see so much more around me, as the cloak of eternal midnight I had unknowingly wrapped around myself had disappeared. You showed me a world I never knew I could be a part of. It filled my eyes, and it filled my heart.

I.

I realize now that you are the sun to my cold, lonely moon. And reflected in your own light, I see your smile, a thousand times brighter than any sun. In your eyes I see the flame that now shares a duet with mine, dancing happily in your heart. That dance... I would never have known that one single dance could change my life so much; would never have known that you would be the one to come along and set fire to fire and create something beautifully new. I didn’t know this. But I suppose you did.