IT WOULDN'T BE LOVE

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MY WRISTS HURT.

I wonder if yours do too.


Sometimes I'll find something funny and I'll

find myself thinking of you and

sometimes I hear your voice

echoing in my head. Only if

my eyes are shut and if I sit still; barely breathing.


Sometimes I hold my breath and I remember.


The thing is—I'd rather not.


Your name is still bright red on my tongue—

I don't know whether I am

grieving over something

I never had

in the first place.


I sat in a coffee shop today. I wondered what

you would have said if you sat across me.


Maybe you'd comment on my choice of drink.

Maybe I'd comment on yours.


-- we could have lied in the darkness together;

my clammy hands in yours.


It wouldn't be love.


(But I'd bury my nose in the hollow of your neck anyway.)


I'd have liked to walk your dog with you.

I like dogs and I had liked you.


Maybe I would have kissed you as we

walked down the streets of

your neighbourhood together;

the both of us lonely

and wanting someone better.


I was never good enough for you.

But funnily enough,

you weren't good enough for me, too.


Hate grew in me like

a vine that threatened to consume me.

I despised myself for relying so much on you

when I barely knew you.


The thing is:

You knew me better than I knew myself.


Maybe I gave you too much praise.


I was weak—

I am weak.


I see you in places where you shouldn't be.


Here's a funny thing:

You never knew how you felt about me.

Here's another:

Neither did I.


You deserve someone better.

(I never wanted you).


Maybe I wanted your hand in mine;

Maybe I wanted companionship.

Maybe I wanted your fingers around my neck; squeezing—


But I never wanted you.

It's funny to think that you thought the same.


I guess we can both

let go now.

Or at least,

I can.


(You let go at the start).

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