He Broke His Fangs For Her Poem by Dan Katoha Jr

They said the devil could never love.
That he was born of fire and cursed to ash,
That he knew only how to destroy, how to roar,
That his breath scorched hope itself,
And his fangs were but the claws of endless rage.

They whispered that light would die in his arms,
That angels dimmed at his touch,
And that love…
Love was a word he couldn't even pronounce without trembling.

He walked alone,
Barefoot on the embers of his sins,
Skin blackened by centuries of hate,
Heart reduced to warm dust,
Eyes heavy from seeing too much
And never being seen.

But she…
She had wings sewn from the silence between stars,
And a halo glowing above her scars,
As if even her pain knew how to forgive.
She was gentleness in the apocalypse,
A beam of light in the deepest dark.

She asked him for nothing.
Not even to believe.
She sat beside him,
Unafraid.
Unshaken.
And in her silence, she screamed louder than all his demons.

She pointed to the sky
With a trembling hand, but an unshakable faith—
Up there…
Where he believed he'd never belong.

So he hesitated.
His heart — or what was left of it —
Beat like a drum no one dared strike.
He didn't understand what he felt,
But for the first time,
It wasn't fear…
Maybe… it was peace.

He could have destroyed her.
He had the fangs, the strength, the curse.
But he no longer had the fury.
For once…
He wanted to deserve that gaze
Where he saw himself as something more
Than a monster.

So, on a night when even the stars held their breath,
He broke his fangs.
One by one.
Without a scream.
Without hate.
Just… a tear in the dark.

He laid them at her feet
Like a king placing his crown before love.
And in that gesture…
He didn't just abandon violence.
He betrayed his chains.
He rejected what the world had carved him to be.

She looked at him—
Not as one gazes at a miracle,
But as one gazes at a man never stopped being hoped for.
She slid her fingers into his,
And in that simple touch,
She healed what a thousand lifetimes couldn't.

She spoke of heaven as shelter,
Not as judgment.
She didn't try to save him.
She accepted him.
And that…
That is what saved him.

That night,
A devil became a man.
And an angel—
A flame no hell could consume.
They weren't the same,
But together, they were the balance the gods had forgotten.
The shadow found its light.
And the light looked into the darkness… without ever blinking.

The others never understood.
They called her mad.
Said he would betray her, break her, extinguish her.

But they hadn't seen the fangs fall.
They hadn't heard the silence he made for her.
They never knew…
That it wasn't a demon who loved her,
But a man
Who had seen love for the very first time
And chose to become worthy of it.

According to Katoha Jr.