Okay, so this poem is sort of about lots of the characters in Charlie Bone. It's cheesy and not usually my sort of thing, but I was just thinking about what a strong emotion love is, and how it's different forms are reflecting in the varying relationships of book characters. Enjoy :)
(Oh, and the third to last stanza is from Manfred's perspective, if its not very clear)
I
Love can destroy you, rip apart your soul
Like a tornado clawing through your heart
Like a torrential downpour on your head
Like lightning obliterating the calm.
And Emma, I wish I could just tell you
And Tancred, I wish I wasn't so scared
That sweet, wistful dreams could come true at last
That they could come crashing down like rainfall
II
Love can change you, mould you, make something new
It strips you to a helpless skeleton
And rubs your soul raw, scrubbing the badness,
Paints on a smile, a twinkle in your eye
Zelda, you were my secret indulgence
The lit candle in those shadowy halls
Manfred, no one would recognise you now
Your true self was peeled open to me lone
III
Love can inspire, can strengthen us all
You could scale a mountain in a heartbeat
Dig yourself from the depths of death's darkness
And fly with blessed angel's wings to your love
Amy, lost deep in flurries of music
I see you, hear you, I love you always
Lyell, I'll never relinquish the fight,
To find you, hold you, love you evermore
IV
Love can be an empty shell, hiding truth
A cloak for infatuation, obsession
A word for when you see your reflection
In their eyes, their everything but their soul
Belle, you and I: a multitude of beasts,
But united in that one sole true form.
Asa, my eager puppy turned shadow
My useful puppet with heart torn open
V
Love can be our brain's hidden dictator,
A strong, shy ghost never revealed but there
A guiding motherly hand on your back
Forgotten, turning ferocious monster
Lyell, I raised you, cared for you, loved you
The Bloor's jester thinking it wouldn't hurt:
That stabbing pain with the photographs gone,
Piano keys cold and dead and silent
VI
Love: the greatest mystery never solved
Shimmering like ripples on water's face
But lurking in the murky, hidden depths
Life's chameleon taking different forms
Mother, you sat silent in the shadows
Whilst Dad strode and shouted and demanded
I thought it made you useless, uncaring
But you were the cog keeping me ticking
VII
Love is precious and irreplaceable
A delicate crystal heirloom always
There but contorting to fit its client.
Love: an invisible necessity
The City is a wild cacophony
Of people and desires and mistakes
But the red rope which joins them, links them all
Is the moral, evil presence of love