Oh my dear, I can hardly wait.
Soon we two shall dance with the teasing belladonna hoping to ensnare us both
You have been too long without a partner, but you have been beautiful

This labyrinthine world has grown too dark for me,
full of incandescent roses that live only to blacken and die.
The remind me too much of myself and I am frightened.

It would be a pyrrhic victory to join you,
years in the making.
I will shed this skin
—the one I have tried to leave so many times before—
and come home to myself.
And to you.