Rose’s Elegy

Did I think

It would be easy

Loving you?

.

Butterflies and bees

feast on clovers, roses,

cucumber blossoms.

.

The fresh air burns my eyes

Like chlorine

Surely it must be poison too

Having killed you

.

I get to work

What else can I do

But clean up the mess of loving you?

.

It surprises me how easily

You dissipate

Without a trace

.

But you leave behind a residue

My cracks are filled with crumbs of you

If I wash you out, I’ll come unglued

.

Acetone on Tupperware

Let me erase what’s indelible

These months, this year

Were never here

.

I can put away your things

But I can’t unbuild this fence for you

I can’t unlearn what love can do

I run red lights looking for you

.

I used to hum a wordless tune

Now I hum elegies for you

I whistle in steady, perfect key

To drown out the silence, deafening

.

The heat wave breaks like a fever

It’s the perfect day

It’s the worst day

It’s the first day of my life without you

.

Already, I cry less

Shorter each time, longer between

But it comes for me like the undertow

Sucking me down

Dark blue

.

Our house smells sterile

Not like a home

There is no “mine” because

there is no “yours.”

.

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/wq810d/stagnant/ikleywb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3

https://www.reddit.com/r/OCPoetry/comments/wq4eo0/the_commissar/iklgkjb/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf&context=3