I once met a boy whose eyes shone like flaxen sunlight,
all bright and dim at the same time.
His mouth tasted like liquor and his kisses injected venom into my being.
When he smiled at me I smiled back,
because what was the harm of love?

I convinced myself that he was drugging me.
That he was slipping me potions and brews.
Cauldrons full of strange entities;
Rat tails and moonstones and molten lava, still bubbling and scorching, fresh from beneath the surface.

I told myself that was what made me stay.
Not the tremor in his voice when he laughed,
or the freckles beneath his eyes,
but the smoke in his lungs like magic pulling me in.

And so when he shattered my heart under his feet like his bottles of whiskey
his eyes unblinking and the shadow of a smile on his flushed face
I blamed him when I should have blamed myself.
I should have known boys with poison for blood and bones made of stardust
Never fall for girls like me.