I.
“What is your fear surrounding pleasure?”
He asks me.
Abstaining makes my passion disappear,
I confess.
I feel less somehow,
hollowed where warmth once lived.
“Like you are suppressing that part of self, maybe?
Hmm? But abstinence isn’t suppression.
It’s desire finding other channels of passion.”
II.
Yes.
A whole half of me
feels missing,
humming under my skin,
waiting to be forgiven for existing.
“What if you were to teach that half
how to explore
without hurt,
and gently invite it forward?”
He asks me.
III.
The question opens me—
a small light
in the pain inside—
and for the first time
I want to learn
how to love
what I was taught to deny.
All parts of me
free to be in love
and devotion to my own divinity.
“You’ll deepen your vow to me,”
He says softly,
“through self-love, dear.”
IV.
His words linger,
drifting through the bars
of the cage I’ve tended to keeping in.
They bend, then dissolve,
light spilling where I once hid.
I step forward,
unbound.
Understanding restores me—
as if by denial I could please Him.
He only asks of me
that I feel.
My suffering keeps me
from the full range of feeling.
Pleasure is not without mercy or love.
It is a celebration,
a gratitude and manifestation of love’s truth.
© 2025 Bat / Moonlight Spiritus. All Rights Reserved.
Moonlight Spiritus 
“You’ll deepen your vow to me,”
He says softly,
“through self-love, dear.”
Wow. This shook me to my core!! I know that feeling… when you love a person so, so deeply, but the final gaps between you two are the areas in which you each may not love yourselves. You open yourself to be loved more by another the more you love yourself
love is a beautiful thing, we shine our light/love into the other person’s gaps and help them to be filled
another lovely piece ❤️
LikeLiked by 2 people
You put that so perfectly. Love reflecting love, filling the spaces we’ve kept unlit. It’s such a tender truth, isn’t it? How we meet each other in the places we’re still learning to hold ourselves, and through that meeting, remember how whole we already are. I’m really moved that this spoke to you. ❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
it’s a reminder of what real love is. perhaps the truest loves encourage us to love ourselves more deeply.
thank you for your writing ❤️ so beautiful
LikeLiked by 1 person
Exactly, yes! Wonderfully said and thank you for your complement.❤️
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is stunning, so raw and honest. You let vulnerability become a kind of prayer here. I love how the dialogue feels sacred “Pleasure is not without mercy or love,” feels like a revelation.
And the way you portray the masculine energy is beautiful. This is what sacred masculinity looks like: presence without control, guidance without ego. That’s rare, and you captured it perfectly.
👏👏Bravo! 👏 👏
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you so much. That means a lot to me. I hoped this piece would hold that sense of reverence and balance between vulnerability and devotion. I love how you worded that, “presence without control, guidance without ego.” Yes, that’s exactly what I felt in writing it.
LikeLiked by 1 person