Obsession

Sometimes it rushes in as a sudden virus,
Stunning the one it hits.
Other times it's a cancer that grows slowly over time,
Its presence unnoticed at first.
But the symptoms, the essence,
Remains the same, no matter the form.

First, there is the wish to devour and destroy
To completely possess as oneself is possessed.
The invisible serpents of adoration and abhorrence swallow each other up,
drawing their noose into an ever tightening circle.
Next, power becomes the coveted weapon used and battled over,
In this unconscious struggle.

Desire becomes a hunger that demands satiation, one of blood sacrifice,
before it consumes its host,
Which it ultimately will in the end.
It is a bloodred flame that neither dies, nor accepts taming,
as its plague ravages all it touches.
A flood that drowns and crushes under pressure,
where no swimming upward brings surface.
The earth that yawns its mouth suddenly,
and consumes the unwary before clamping shut again

There is no true cure, save the treatment of vigilance.
This monster is carried inside us all,
testing its tethers, waiting for its chance to break free; watching the world through the looking glass of our gaze without our notice,
always waiting to unleash its infection upon the soul and the mind.
It has all the time it needs, it can afford patience.