Love Poem With a Twist

Something about you reminds me of
faint college summers, when afternoons
were moulded by the red-eyed
encounters (only to be intoxicated
a few moments later); reminds me of the
summer breeze with its
first wild promise of rain, and
unforeseen storms within the
contours of my heart, and when
your breath filled the nooks
and corners of my being I
get reminded of childhood
summers at the sea when the waves
would whisper sweet nothings
and promises of forever, for when
I would go back they would have
still stayed the same. The liquor
that burns my throat now reminds
me of how the things you love can
hurt you too: remember the nights
your ears went deaf to my
refusal and you ravaged my body
with yours anyway? You said it
was all for love, and that love
can live for just so long without
lust, your belief so strong that my
‘no’s suffocated in the darkness
of my throat. The many cigarettes
that lay stubbed out of their existence
among the ashes of my heart makes
me remember how the things you
love can kill you slowly from
inside and as I stub my last
cigarette tonight, the ashes
shall see my love for you
perish once and for
all, because I know
what love is and what
is abuse, and they can
never
be
the same.