The paper dog

I wonder if you kept that drawing

Of your dog, I drew years ago

On vertically symmetrical lines

With coloured pencils and uneven strokes.

​

Is it somewhere tucked away

In the bottom of your bedroom drawer,

Alongside the other crumpled papers

I was never meant to see?

​

It’s been five years, I will admit,

But I’ve loved you all the same.

Rereading all the texts I’ve sent

And all the things I never got to say.

​

And in the corner of my mind, you lie

Behind my eyelids and fingertips.

I wish I could rewind these moments one last time

And get to know you, I’d do it all over again

​

I don’t know you, no, not anymore

But I’d like to.

​

Sometimes, I still wonder

if you kept that drawing or threw it out

Like the rest of my scrapped feelings,

Because you didn’t like the taste that lingered

On your tongue, dripping bile.

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