I cried, and cried really – fitfully,
Frightened of the night to come
And days to follow.
I cared not for friends
And how they would comfort me,
For I had thrown away a love.
A life once mapped in notion
Now lost to fantasy
To regret
To the shadows of another being
For he and I no longer identified
For good or bad, he was a different man
And so it was my soul
That bled asunder
Wrent by my own wretched hands
My tongue in fact
My thoughts –
My future for a cigarette.
Could it really have been that banal?
A voice, in answer, on a phone some weeks later blamed me anyway.
© The Hairy Teacher, (revised 8/10/24), otthon