Sweet Talk


"Before you my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason… And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything."

Monday, April 18, 2011

Happy Ending















When the stars fell

you packed my shirts

pants

sneakers

bras and underwear

and called me

a piece of shit

The glass frame you punched didn’t shatter or smash

it melted around your knuckles and made you feel more like a man.

it made me small

scared

and even more breakable under your arm

You always hit me hard enough to crack the bone just below my eye—

but not hard enough to turn it purple

or blue

or black.

But now we’re older and this relationship has shriveled up

with the laughter and schoolyard games

I never remember you allowing me to play.

It’s all turned to forgotten rubble.

There are no praising passing words

no memories that haven’t collapsed under pain

no rosary beads left to rid me of your haunting voice reassuring me

that without you, I’ll die

alone on a sheetless

stained, lumpy

twisted

mattress.

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