Date  was ———- delicate flower
Required me to absorb the shadows
and cut myself apart for him to
make me even smaller.

I could never be small enough
for him to be big enough.
This relationship would blossom until the warranty ran out,
until I ran out the door,

until there was no way to return
or be reimbursed
for the hours spent
rocking his sadness to sleep.

Until
there is no way to forget the way
he crocheted his stretch marks into
what he told me were scars.

There was no satisfaction guaranteed
only his hands where they wanted to be
when he wanted them to be.
He was an invasive species

with no natural predators,
because people aren’t supposed to hurt people.
He promised fruit but was only thorns.
But take away the metaphors

and what you will find
is a boy who would lie and cheat and hurt
just to
feel good.

H.D. Weidemann

 

Hope Weidemann is an undergraduate at Penn State Altoona, as an English major. She is originally from Mount Wolf, PA.

© 2020