Poem: Claimed

The darkness emerges, uninvited and heavy.

But it's real, unembellished truth.

Enticingly possessive, it can consume me—

Control me or comfort me; there’s no negotiating with it.

It's a part of me, and I a part of it;

The intense connection quaking my core.

Like a moth to a flame, it summons me;

Drawn to the macabre, to death, to taboo,

as it did those who came before.

I cannot escape myself in the dark;

It provokes dangerous imagery, soliloquy, ecstasy.

Seductive urges, raw emotion, primal screams,

tangled with familiar contempt and despair.

Your soul seeking comfort in its embrace,

welcoming its seduction, inviting dominance over you.

The darkness, like an old friend, calls to you;

It holds you, grips you, steadies you.

Volatile, yet hauntingly erotic,

it will break you or seduce you.

Darkness, still the mind, silence the lips, subvert my reality—

Or else tear down my walls and release me absolutely.

Self Portrait (1st December, 2025)