A Heart For A Heart

I refuse to believe you did not love me.  For I am too lovable, to not have been loved by a villain—
monstrous as you.

But if facts be true, being— your heart does not beat,
your soul cannot sing, and your conscience fled long ago,
then…I understand. You could not love—
lovable as I am—
but held me tightly, the only way you knew,
the way you had known love, being…
to destroy what you could not conquer and cage. 

And, if this is what you had to give, if this dark emptiness
is what filled your heart with dreamless beats, and you handed your dreamless heart to me…
Then,  I understand.
You gave, all the heart you had.

How naive I was
not to see, you gave just as much
as me.

A heart in exchange for a heart.