Proximity Two Poem by Lonnie Hicks

It was proximity alone;
the nearness;
the contact
on a too-close basis
that harmed her
she explained.

'Some people' she said
'by virtue of who they are,
by virtue of their being-ness
without malice on their part
can be bad for you,
sever your innocent heart.

It might be they are prettier,
smarter, calmer, or they remind you of
someone or some thing which plants gnawing fear in your soul.

These are Irresistible Flame;
you are the Irrepressible Moth
flickering close
sensing you might meet doom;
you Juliet
he Romeo,
we both moments
away from soul-shaking tragedy-
a train rolling to a high cliff
a breath-taking exhilarating dropp ensues
and frozen I exhalt
never thinking, or caring
of the shattering fall
as I, the moth,
feel the heat;
light at first
but at last
wings aflame
I surrender to
the searing blaze
not caring for the all-consuming inferno.

Who is hero here
who the villian;
only dread circumstance' she said.
'There is no cause Reason respects,
only left is magic that says
there might be between us some previous
life's extinction,
that the soul remembers
from some previous existence.'

'He killed me' she said
from a long ago
that I remember
and he doesn't.'

I have a vague rememberance
but he doesn't;
but never mind
my soul
stirs recognizing;
it wants to flee
but does not,
torn between
the need to know
to be sure
and deadly proximity,
which will kill for sure
and once killed
I will again be fragile dust on this plane
and be dead again.
I sense the irrationality of this she said
from which flows
the desire to move closer sometimes
to kill him
before he kills me again
this time around.'

Or perhaps to kill the urge in him
to kill again
or to change him
and his former deadly ways;
or to expose the disguise
he mounts this time around
probably unaware
that he was not born
on innocent ground
but had a soul-killing history
of which he is unaware.'

'Sound crazy? ' she said
but that is why I can't leave
and yet can't stay.
We two are bound.'

I shook my head confused
but it was clear they were
forged steel
double-edged
blood drawn
from each
each ground down into
eachs' existential ground;
fateful-bound.