To Him

I refuse to be the ghost of your past relationships
now given flesh.
I am not your all forgiving chance to do over
the wrongs you committed.
I am not the chance to confess your love in the ways
you only dreamed of with them.

Do not dance with me under the midnight stars because
it was something they loved.
Do not let pet endearments drip so casually from your lips
because they were so entranced by them.
Do not love me with the same fractured pieces of your excuse
for a heart that you once loved them with.
Do not give me your trinkets and clothes
because they are a collar meant for them.
I won't let them fit me.

Dance with me under the midnight sky because I am wild
and it calls to me in ways you barely understand
but entrances you all the same.

Call me only by my name because
it's the sweetest one on your lips.
Command me with it.

Love me with the whole scraps of your heart;
the ones that have never known love or a kiss but that you
gift me with all the same.
Love me fiercely with those pieces.

Give me a collar made of intangible things
and a leash made of the vows you intend to keep
this time around.
The cologne of  your clothes and touch of metal
is theirs,
never mine.

I am no ghost of some girl you once loved,
I am fire given flesh and voice
and I will burn you with my love so that you will not forget
I am an entity of my own.

My forgiveness is not free.
You do not deserve it because you got no second chance.
I demand tears and remorse in payment
of wrongs committed against me for the lingering love of another.

I am not the language of love
you could never speak boldly.
I am not obsession confessed in pillow talk.
I am a whispered vow of devotion at the cost of your soul.