Paradise

Suddenly the stale taste of boredom was replaced by the sweet, grossly warm - metallic - of blood

I opened my eyes to find her etching words into my chest in kitchen knife cursive

The pain became real as she dragged the blade's dull edge over my lips and leaned close to kiss and get a taste

Though a thousand thoughts came together in protest as she slowly approached, I never stopped her - just worked the knife out of her hand as her vow coagulated, inscribed in flesh and she lapped up the clotting mess

Strained to read it in vain - words upside-down, twisted beyond my comprehension, searing my mind, severed muscle and vein - every breath a new intensity of hurt and I lay ambushed, violated, and now tempted

She smiled with a glint of red tooth in the dark, caught her breath sharply as though preparing to laugh - pulled her close enough, though, to halt her so she'd hear the whisper of my vow and feel the cold, sticky steel over her throat:

You know we were never made for love or war
and you know where this entropic revelry is never gonna take us.

Still ... such a long night to sit outside the gates of paradise.