an ode to the loveless, these are for you.

darling, you know i don't like cherries

i wish life could be as hopelessly romantic as me,
as long-full.
i wish it would play out the conversations in my head that are ripped straight out of a movie script.
that play perfectly to the tune i want life to sound like.
but no.
life sounds like traffic, smells of construction,
and it tastes like you.
it's bittersweet,
some days one more than the other.
recently it's been increasingly bitter.
i wouldn't say a lemon,
i enjoy the taste of lemon.
it tastes like cherry medicine, (which by the way, tastes nothing like cherry at all).
i've made it increasingly obvious how distressed the taste of cherry makes me,
how much i despise it.
yet before you kiss me you make sure to put on cherry lip balm,
maybe eat one or two cherries and then not brush your teeth.
no matter how much i tell you i don't like cherries, you keep smearing them on your lips and your tongue.
you sneak them in my oranges and lemons,
all the tastes i love.
you taint it with cherries.

you promised no more cherries,
and yet every time i open my mouth to speak or laugh one gets popped onto my tongue.
you can't keep your promises.
stop feeding me cherries,
i just want to be fed your love.