They say a relationship won’t save you,
but I’m still a social animal,
falling prey to silly things like
a need for validation
and acceptance,
and when alone, my fears came like shadows lurking
in the crackling of frozen forest branches.
So I sought a sickle in the moonlight,
fled and faced and fought
predators,
bent myself into angles
to camouflage with the trees.
If my loneliness was this night,
then you were my discovery of fire.
If my isolation kept me bare-legged in the winter,
you were my Prometheus,
stealing flame from the gods for humankind.
When my loneliness made me blind,
you hunted the hunger of my shadow demons
and fed them warmth until they grew tame.
And if you were my discovery of fire,
then I was your discovery of the seasons,
a shift from snow to water to snow again,
Persephone climbing from the underworld in spring
to bloom this barren battleground with breathing green.
If you were punished for theft
from Hephaestus,
then I was his bane,
killing the eagle feasting on your pain,
releasing you from your chains.
If we were only myths to and about each other,
we might flee to a realm of gods
with tamed cacodemons for company,
wondering how we let the world hold us down.
Because a relationship won’t save you,
not from everything,
but in acceptance there’s a secret:
if someone else believes you can,
punishment for fire seems like nothing
and seasons come and go
as air itself,
and you find the gravity
to upend the food chain
and feast
on the fears that once formed
your primordial world
by saying
no more,
we belong,
we are the creators
of the future,
not you,
and through this forged fate of love
we will make our planet whole
***
find my fantasy novel at this link
Jordyn Saelor 