Poe

I saw you last night

as you stepped to the stage and spoke a

phrase I’d heard six hundred times before.

You uttered it with conviction; have

you been practicing lately?

I try to shake the look you cast on me,

something is different, something is wrong.

I’m quick to run away from the encore.

I realize the proximity of your fire

has me built up with burns.

It wasn’t the words that broke down

the concrete wall

I’d built long before this night

could even be fathomed,

But the happiness I saw sprouting.

Not one thing terrified me more;

because I knew early on

This would only end one way.

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*Originally published: July 10, 2021*