The Thorn

Like a drug,
I need you.
When I'm with you
I am happy.
When we part,
I crash.

Like a fish out of water,
I can't breathe without you.
Like a flower needs rain,
I need you.
Though every rose has its thorns,
Your petals shine scarlet above them.

As the warm, gentle sun glistens
down on the everlasting day
That is my time with you,
I can't help but wonder --

Am I the air, the rain, the rose?
Or the suffocating constrictions of the deprived,
the shriveled, gnarled stem of the thirsty...

The thorn?