moth to the flame

He looked at her
as though she was the only one in the room
in the building
in the existence of mankind

She knew that look
and she felt weary
The last person she told
to not fall in love with her

did

She felt some part
of her spirit
sag

She wasn’t beautiful
perhaps attractive
She wasn’t successful
she managed to get by

She wasn’t a lot of things
but the life
she had lived
felt
seen
experiences
of varying extremes
lay idly and apparent
in her eyes

Maybe that’s what it was
Man’s base instinct
to either protect
or prey

She was smarter than the predators
Unfortunately
sympathetic to the ones who wished
to protect

She smiled at him
and with sadness buried deep
where only she could find it
thought to herself

here we go again