Member-only story
Friends With Boys
2024 Poetry Project — #8
it’s a truth universally acknowledged
that i cannot seem to be
friends with boys
without complications.
oh, catching feelings is real enough —
a worry enough by some measure —
but the truth is i always come to admire
them as if they’re ideals on a pedestal.
surely they don’t worry about the nothings
that take up all my spare time —
and surely they don’t get ahead of themselves
before it’s time to make a decision in earnest.
but the honest thing is how we’re all
just putting on poses for the people
we like and trust and strive to please —
even as we become strangers unto ourselves.
the last friend i had
burned me — scar to scar to scar —
with his kindness even as he could not
speak a word of conversation aloud to me.
our words were shared in secret,
in emails we exchanged time after time,
until all i could do was let the thread die
because letting him go was…
