The first time I saw her
The crowd had parted like the red sea

Her hair glinted like molten rubies
Those beautiful red lips stretched in a predatory smile
The blue eyes were light as a sunny sky
And the moment they met mine
My heart stopped.
I smiled

Every day, I came and sat
In the very same bench where I first laid my eyes on her
Every day, she would come looking impossibly beautiful and unattainable
Talking to a different man every day, the eyes glinting and smile teasing
Every day, her eyes would meet mine. She never smiled.

Months passed; spring turning autumn and then the snow
with wintry wind greeting me like an old lover
Her eyes had met mine
And they were, so- so cold.
The men she talked to were never seen again.

I closed my eyes

Her wrist was thin and delicate, not a single mark
Her smile was hollow, as she sat beside me
“How do you do?” she asked, as if we were old friends
I smiled and shook my head, my response already forgotten
So lost was I, in that beauty- a selfish blindness had overtook me

For a long time, we just talked
Breathy words and light whispers
Meaningless words and tired sighs
Secret smiles and coy glances
What more could I have possibly asked for?

One day, she simply lent forward
Her lips like red satin against mine
“I am so tired” she whispered brokenly in my arms
I swallowed and tenderly touched the fading scars on her back

“Do you love me?”
“Yes”
Her smile had felt like the first sunrise

His name was forgotten, all I saw was her arms around him
She looked at me as if I was the stranger, and yet she smiled
I averted my eyes
The next day, his dead body was found beside the river
With no marks other than a sliced back

I closed my eyes

That night, she slept peacefully in my arms

Every day, a new man was in her arms
Every night, I held her trembling body, and prayed for mercy through the haze
Every day, the angels left with another soul
Every night, I knelt in front of the alter

The last night, I returned with a few prayers still fresh on my lips

Her red hair still glinted like river of blood
The smile sharp and happy
I walked and looked around me
The shadow she left behind

The windows were shattered
Furniture overturned,
The victim’s empty sockets gaped at me
Perhaps, still surprised by his death?

The moonlight shined and brightened her
Her looks of death angel
One hand held the knife, the other beckoned me
“I have been waiting, my love”

They never saw it coming
So lost in her beauty and smile
The love which was poison and sweet
The prettier side of death

I held her hand and looked around
Knowing I was to follow
“Do you love me?” “Why, yes”
I never saw the knife coming, just her smile
I closed my eyes.