Love arrived like a famished traveler, ravenous and insatiable. It devoured the very essence of my existence, leaving behind an empty plate where once my identity lay.
First, it feasted on my name—the syllables that defined me. Love chewed through each letter, savoring the taste of vowels and consonants. My birth certificate crumbled under its hunger, and my genealogy dissolved into forgotten whispers.
Business cards, meticulously printed with titles and affiliations, vanished into its voracious maw. Love cared not for credentials; it preferred the raw flavor of authenticity.
The papers where I wrote my name—scribbled notes, letters, and diary entries—all became its midnight snack. Love consumed ink and memory alike, leaving only blank spaces in its wake.
Medication bottles trembled as Love swallowed pills whole. Prescriptions disintegrated, their purpose lost to its appetite. Even diets, carefully crafted to nourish, succumbed to its craving.
X-rays and mental tests—once diagnostic tools—became mere morsels. Love chewed through the wires of shortwave radios, seeking hidden frequencies. Aspirin tablets crumbled like communion wafers, and urine tests lost their clinical significance.
On the bookshelf, my poetry books met their fate. Love devoured verses, leaving behind empty pages. Prose quotations, once eloquent, dissolved into silence. Even the dictionary, with its lexicon of longing, succumbed to its hunger.
Utensils—combs, razors, toothbrushes—became its midnight feast. Love wielded my nail scissors, carving intricate patterns. Opera notes echoed in the bathroom, arias rising from the depths of its belly. The water heater’s demise was but a trifle; Love’s appetite knew no bounds.
Fruits vanished from the table, replaced by Love’s insatiable thirst. Water cups and jars yielded their contents willingly. Bread, once sustenance, became an offering. Tears flowed freely, Love drinking from eyes that held oceans within.
Childhood memories—finger-paint, tousled hair, unpolished boots—were gnawed upon. The elusive girl, forever at the edges of perception, scratched at the walls of my mind. Conversations by petrol pumps, shared with cousins who knew the language of birds, dissolved like mist.
Love’s hunger extended beyond the personal. It drained swamps, abolished tides, and devoured mangroves. Curly leaves and sugarcane plants yielded to its insistent bite. Red barriers crumbled, and black trains vanished into its abyss.
Salt air clung to its breath as Love consumed the world. Days unadvertised in leaflets disappeared, minutes advanced on watches were devoured. The future—athlete, poet, traveler—became its delicacy.
And in this grand feast, Love devoured my peace and war alike. Day and night merged into a single flavor. Winter and summer melted together, their contrasts forgotten. Silence, once my refuge, was swallowed whole, leaving only echoes.
Fear of death? Love chewed it like a bone, marrow dripping from its lips.

©️ Beatriz Esmer