I woke up as something more than I’d become;
someone more than she said I was.
Time pushed years of tears through the flames of her
goodbyes.
My clever tries fell on deaf ears.
Superstitious to the core,
she skipped cracks in crooked sidewalks
for the life of separation that fell in her
only to rewrite her reasons for leaving last year.
A black cat dashed across the room,
tipping over a vase.
I didn’t like that fucking vase anyway
She picked the lock and let herself in
Her voice shattered a mirror hung above the bed.
Upon me, she mounted,
holding a butter knife to my throat,
begging through bared teeth and crinkled eyes,
we rekindle the flame she’d extinguished.
I choked on the words I never said, motioning her to my bed.

(© 2022 AC)