I’m dark-shadowed, love, fluttering around your candle-flame –

A moth with singed wings unable to resist your glow

(Deadly attraction, but willing all the same):

Soft black night-wings trembling, cast shadows on the wall;

Your fire to meet perfection in my imperfect, fire-blinded sight

And it’s happily I wing my fragile way to your flickering light.

The tic-tock, tic-tock, of the clock is dangerous;

Every second, every tic, every tock, brings me closer -

Closer to the moment when I will sacrifice

My body and heart in your consuming blaze – Nearer,

And nearer still, to the instant of frailty

Where I will fall into your brightness, and linger,

Until your devouring flames engulf me;

And my ashes will crumble away from you,

Darker still than even my night-cloaked wings,

To fall, to collide with the wind, and be swept away

Into complete frailty, into nothingness.