Obsessed (Poetry)

For one split second, every face half-glimpsed
is hers - the features morph to shadow-match
her solemn look - the way pale skintones catch
the candle's glow and throw a likeness back.

Before that moment when the vision shrinks -
becomes itself - some stranger in the park -
and, closer-to, the differences stand stark -
he sees her there, her ruined hair blood-dark.

His brain is fooled - his eye a camera, blinks;
imagination's shutter double-takes
and, for a heartbeat, the mistake he makes
is shocking - sends him rocking 'til he shakes.

She haunts him night and day. He often thinks
there is a sisterhood of ghosts obsessed
with payback - paranormally depressed -
who blame him, shame him, make him feel possessed.

Her memory has forged the nightmare links
that chain him - make him face his blackest sin,
and she watches as his sanity wears thin -
Is he obsessed with her - or she with him?

Love kills its host - the desperate knife blade sinks
and Romeo is bleeding mortally:
the last escape route yawns to set him free,
although he's guessed that death's no guarantee.