The night you chose to erase what we had—

devices burned like pages; warmth slipped from our hands—

you spurned yourself, blind to my incessant weeping,

and left me aching enough to sink into numbness.

        Five years past the remains, I still wish you’d thought it through;

          back then, the same sky was enough to bind us true.

            You stayed up with me even when words were gone;

                you were the safe haven that I must now forsake.

You begin the day unseen; no one seeks your name.

For your fate, unsparing as death and taxes, leaves no one to blame.

Yet I grieve in the quiet where your words once willingly consoled.

With hands clasped, risking it all, growing old—

          such puerile musing. Do you recall the version who loved unconditionally?

           A heart wide open, pouring ceaselessly, runs out eventually.

                  No wonder, as all life bows at death’s door;

                      memories will soon wash upon the shore while I implore for more.

O Karmic, my Soulmate, our tale should end as it began.

I replay the melody, wishing you were a better man.

The signs you showed, I slit through blaring vermilion;

yet the first verse I ever wrote declared you my evangelion.

         Across every dimension, the feelings linger as I wake.

           Curses scatter through the air of my heartbreak,

              But why? Why! WHY!!!

                 For I would rather you die—if it is myself to I.

Art by Alexandra Asuncion