Rose Blood

​I was starving for beauty, and you had it in overflow
You were feeding on the needy, and I was easy, 
So open to new things 
So naïve to everything 
I was a bud on the edge of blooming, 
And you only needed my blood
I didn’t see what was looming 

Behind art is a mess 
Behind genius is anybody’s guess 
I embraced the madness and endured the torture 
Pain was after all progress, 
And I was its martyr

Ready and able to burn, 
If it meant satisfying my yearn,  
For philosophy; 
Your words were sophistry 
I was hungry, 
And you starved for my youth 
You tasted me, 
As I begged for truth 
You drained me to the last drop, 
And I couldn’t help it,  
And you couldn’t stop 

You were delicate when you came, 
Your face like muses in a flame
You personified beauty and grace 
And you blossomed in a strange place 
So alien to me, 
Everything I wanted to be

I became the ground in which you were nurtured 
And with my nutrients you flowered, 
And came to tower above me 
You couldn’t get enough of me 
And I gave you your color, 
Stained from the fluid of my veins 
Beauty is pain, 
And a rose by any other name?