sweet darkness

would you recognize it by taste?

the darkness, i mean.

would the bitterness

creeping up your throat

be a familiar sting?

the rash that i know

like the back of my hand

on your back, or your hand,

you would overlook.

see, to taste the bile

and never puke

is to accept that the darkness

comes from within.

there's no foreign substance,

nothing that hasn't always been inside.

it will try and claw its way out

but you know to shove it down.

better to burn deep within

than know you lit others on fire.

you won't comprehend

and i won't try to force it.

your lips drip with honey,

bubbling up from your gut

filled to the brim with pure good.

you have never been evil;

you've not even been wrong.

when the tar gushes from my mouth,

you're repulsed.

the lightness you see in yourself

rejects the darkness you see in me.

though tar and honey stick

just the same, you hide yours

with sugar and fool even yourself.

sweet darkness goes down easier.

~mj