-1-
As he sped out of the parking lot,
With all of the male anger
And machismo behind him.
You stood there paralyzed.
Covered your ears and cried.
I told you to come to me,
And you came.
I held you,
Your eyes pink, swollen with tears.
You smelled like whiskey.
I told you you should hang out with guys
That didn’t have anger issues.
You laughed and said I was right.
You held a letter in your hand.
You opened it.
I could read the first
Big bright letters
Written in crayon.
It said, This is over.
That was all you needed to read.
Ripped it to shreds,
Under your breath you said,
That’s too bad.
Threw it in the garbage.
You moved on.
There was already someone
Waiting upstairs.
-2-
The first time we met in a bar,
You asked me what I did.
I told you I was a Poet.
You read by memory
A Poem by your favorite Poet.
I was impressed by that.
That a woman loved a Poem so much
To remember it.
Tonight you asked me to read you a Poem.
I told you to go first.
You read it just as I remembered.
I traded you a Poem as promised.
You tried to read one of your own by memory,
But you couldn’t remember.
And the exchange stopped there.
-3-
I am detaching myself
From this hu-man carnage all around me.
It is beyond my control, or compassion.
I just want to live
A happy peaceful life.
There are days that it is
So hard to turn away.
deuce coupe 