Between the Moth and the Flame

[Dark Muse]

Between the Moth and the Flame

Moth-like we dance metaphors around each other,
the flames beguile with serpentine smiles
and I wonder if I am any better,
my secrets flounder in veils of smoke.

Desperately yearning for a touch,
but with wings so delicate how can we dare?
You leave behind the powdered snow of love,
flaking away upon my fingertips,
but then where would you be?

(trapped inside the glass jar we constructed in fear and fragility)
(I wonder is my love such camphor?)

And there is the fire that would tear me away
with such masculine heat,
dare I resist?

(your gentleness I know is hard-edged, but he comes as a tour de force)

I struggle between myself
caught betwixt iron and feathers
(I know how you consume my thoughts)
but he begins to shed shadows
and lingers in precarious, inconspicuous places.

So I will dangle as a pendulum
held barely by a delectable thread of carnivorous silk
which may at any moment give way
and pitch me forth.

(will your satin wings, untouched be enough to catch me?)
(or will I be swallowed up within his mire and mirth?)

[Charles Darnay]

Glad your posting poems again here - they are a nice respite.

I enjoyed this. I'm not sold on the opening line - I've never been a fan of throwing the word metaphor into a metaphor (or simile, I guess) - unless done satirically. But this may just me.

[Dark Muse]

Thank you, and I can understand why you might feel that way, but it was that line which first popped into my head that got me writing the whole pome.

[jayat]

Hi...I can tell you what I liked: overall all the poem. I found great the lines "Desperately yearning for a touch, but with wings so delicate how can we dare?" I found it simple and strong, straight. I coincide with Darnay. Obvously it's not using a metaphor into another metaphor (I don't think if this is even possible). And finally I like the alliterations "(...) shed shadows (...)/ (...)precarious, inconspicuous places ".
Everything is trying. Great...

[libernaut]

brilliant poem. i really like the contrasting elements in the verse. very well done. keep writing.

[Dark Muse]

Thank you!