Oh My Darling: A Poem on Obsession | Thursday Verse No. 26

 Cities keep secrets well. They bury them beneath traffic, crowds, and the glow of ordinary afternoons. Sometimes, however, a secret slips through a crack—a passing glimpse, a raised voice, a name spoken at the wrong moment—and the world never quite looks the same again.

Oh My Darling

Photograph by Kseniya Kopna. Source.

She loved someone, and I just knew who, 

Together I saw them in a restaurant this noon,

I heard him adorned her with honey words, 

And she swooned into the warmth of his lips' comfort, 

What happened next I cannot recall, 

For I stood frozen like a lifeless doll. 

Leona was a girl, private and quite, 

Her secrets secured only in my chest shut tight,

During our girly nights, she'd always name me

the lighthouse in this overwhelming City of Dreams,

Yet there hid stories behind her sparkling eyes, 

The ones kissed only into that youth's flaring smile. 

Later that day, I walked by her shut door to a noise of scolds,

"You are insane!" the same voice told,

Jae, she called, might be her friend, 

Took more liberty with her than I could ever extend, 

With gentleness the voice blamed her impulsiveness, 

Leona protested that she shouldn't be solely accused of the bloody mess.

I waited long to catch every particle of the truth, 

Heard them debate over the concealment of the youth— 

Who, on her floor lay, soaking in the sourness of his blood, 

As Jae tried to persuade Leona’s hands to get rid off his youthful red,

Yet Leona sternly stood her ground,

to surrender before she was guilty found.

Jae mournfully heard her dial 100,

And narrate the details of what had unfolded:

"He came at me with a knife, 

intending to take away my life, 

Defenceless my nerves took to violence, 

Shutting his breath into an everlasting silence."

The officers were dispersed and were soon to reach, 

“How many of you are in the room?” must have asked the police,

“Just me and the dead man,” I heard her say,

I wondered why she lied about Jae.

After the call I heard them patiently wait,

As a dense silence began to prevail,

Disappointed Jae grieved in silence, 

Helplessly listening to Leo calmly explain to herself, 

"Had he not come today to alter my fate, 

This would have been the dreamiest day, 

But what is gone cannot be undone,

Sadly, my hands were designed to end yet another one.

Nosey he was all his living while, 

A third wheel in our perfectly destined time, 

He sniffed my scent in my darling’s parent’s and Ray’s demise,

and my malevolence, this Jared threatened to publicise. 

Ray labelled my yearning for Alan as evil. 

And my malice to Alan this one dared to reveal.

Ray, as you know, tumbled down the balcony, 

The precision of my design saved me from charges of felony, 

But this one creeped in the hindsight like a weed,

Forcing me to commit yet another misdeed,

As we know, a seed unwittingly buried will one day creep out as a magnanimous tree, 

And I want to live a life largely guilt free.”

Turning pale, my senses returned only to the siren’s wail,

The only scene I remember thence was the officer scribble her details,

"Madam, what is your name?" 

“Leona…Leona Jae.”

Before being escorted she reached me with a sinistrous grin, 

whispering into my ears, “Don't even whisper it to the air you breathe in!”

- Mercy Rebonica