Tale As Old As Time

There was something about his glance -

I wasn’t quite sure if it was a promise or a threat.

But I could never resist the taste of

rebellion

cheap silver

tattoos

a heart that softens and beats only when I walk into the room

What is it about inked calloused hands that could hold me in place the way others couldn’t?

What is it about the bad boy?

Suits and ties weren’t suited for me, I guess

I preferred leather.

What can I say?

He wore the world so well

He would embrace me, and I could feel what it had done to him

I felt the burn, I felt the chill

Whenever that black, scratchy leather touched my face as I buried myself into his chest, I felt the sun, or I felt it’s absence

I felt safe when he would stand behind me

His own shadow would swallow mine, hiding me from evil eyes

And when I would finally step out into the light, he would stand up straight and curl his fists

He would adjust his rings and mark any face with their emblem should anyone have come too close to me

Not even karma could touch me…

It was beautiful, and bloody beautiful when necessary

I was walking with wolves and devoured by love

My mother need not have worried, but she worried all the same

… Alas, I was a cliche young girl which cliche musings

Despite what I used to feel, time didn’t stop when we were together

In fact, it aged us, but my beautiful bad boy never changed

Isn’t that wonderful? He never changed!

That’s wonderful, right? He never changed!

He never changed!

He never changed.

He never changed?

He never changed…

But one thing did.

My bad boy grew into a man, and so it was…

He was now a bad man.

“There’s a big difference between a bad boy and a bad man,” I’ll tell my daughter

Sometimes, you don’t realize it until you hear your child’s first cry

Maybe it was your mom who was crying

Or maybe, it was your best friend’s voice pleading that eventually became a whisper, that eventually became a memory

But make no mistake:

A bad boy is a dream, but a bad man is a nightmare…

Time to wake up.