By Aya Khalaf | Staff Writer

i took a whiff of you the other day

you smelled like power and cigarettes

as if you were holding onto some sort of burning stone,

it was hurting your skin and flesh,

but you were still persistent on never letting it go.

It’s as if this stone was your whole world, and you were protecting it from everything around you.

I looked across you afar from a distance,

admiring how strong-willed you can be to hold onto something that was somehow a parasite to you,

rather than a cure.

I was filled with envy, however, it wasn’t the emotion overbearing my chest.

Feelings of despair and jealousy took control,

suffocating me and reaching the gulp of my throat.

Now, you may wonder what must i have against a mere fire stone?

I’d answer you and say that this all i ever longed for.

From the day I declared the idea of emotions to exist,

when i took in my very first breaths of feelings and passion and despair and pain and anger and agony.

To have someone hold me so close and never let go,

to caress my forehead, look me deeply in the eyes and tell me he won’t drop me down to the ground and have me fall.

This darned stone your soft yet stern hands were holding was your heart.

I may refer to your heart as cold-stone,

but I wouldn’t be doing it any justice.

Your heart is always on fire,

To the others, they don’t see,

And you’re the one to be blamed.

You’re depriving the world away from its flames,

and devouring the smoke and burns of it all

assuming that’s how you keep it protected.

Alas you’re oh so wrong,

because at the end of the day, my love,

no one will burn but you.