Do you perceive your own pains so intensely
That there’s little room left to consider others
As others, not chess pieces to inch about?
Have you forgotten that sharing the small joys
That compile into bliss is paramount bliss?

This darkness I perceive in you
Reflects my own broken-soul-clockwork
So unforgivingly that I shrink and look away,
Too afraid to see my own horrors dancing in you,
Beneath your skin, in your eyes, flowing through your tone.