He lived alone in a fortress of thought,

Where the greatest of minds and quiet truths were caught.

A diet of philosophy, a rainbow of grace,

He saw the grand design in the human race.

Few friends, but fierce in their quiet care,

He breathed in the holy, solitary air.

A mind so sublime and a spirit entirely pure,

In his heaven of pages, he felt safe and secure.

Then came a shadow in the shape of a dove,

A weeping woman begging for a sliver of love.

She spun a tragic tale of a doll tossed away,

Left out in the cold, forever astray.

His pure heart shattered at the sound of her grief,

He fell to his knees, praying to bring her relief.

To pull this femme fatale from her oceans of pain,

He stepped out of the sun and walked into her rain.

Oh, he traded his heaven to pull her from hell,

Under the weeping illusion of the stories she’d tell.

He gave her his sunrise, he took on her night,

Lost in her darkness, she fed on his light.

He poured out his soul just to witness her smile,

But he didn't know he was dying the whole while.

He spent all his hours, both the day and the night,

Just trying to make her broken world right.

He closed all his books, let his own universe fade,

Just to be the warm shelter her sorrow had made.

A pious devotion, a love without sin,

A holy bond he thought they were in.

He could not imagine the air that he drew,

Without her beside him, the only world that he knew.

Then one sudden dawn, she vanished like mist,

Leaving him breathless, erased and dismissed.

Silent and cold, to another she flew,

Leaving him bleeding, searching for a clue.

No physical hunger, just a soul ripped apart,

She left him with questions and a hole for a heart.

He waited and withered, expecting a word,

But only the deafening silence was heard.

Now he walks through the streets, but he’s dead deep inside,

A hollowed-out shell where a good man once died.

While she revels in gold, with a smile bright and cold,

Preying on innocents, fearless and bold.

She feels no remorse as the next victim falls,

A beautiful phantom that echoes and calls.

Cause he traded his heaven to pull her from hell,

Under the weeping illusion of the stories she’d tell.

He gave her his sunrise, he took on her night,

Lost in her darkness, she fed on his light.

He poured out his soul just to witness her smile,

And she murdered his spirit, bit by bit, mile by mile.

Look at him now, a withered, gray shell,

This is the story the townsfolk will tell.

Of the femme fatale prowling, a predator's art,

Who feasts on the warmth of a beautiful heart.

So guard your pure soul when the sad stories start...

For she'll take all your life... and leave you in the dark.

Dead on the inside.

Left in the dark.