I Can Imagine

A Poem

Photo by Jose Llamas on Unsplash

i can imagine how this story ends
as easily as if it were written behind my eyelids,
tattoo kisses across my lips again and again,
till all i can imagine is death striking once, twice, thrice.

i can imagine getting lost in the woods
and never resurfacing,
stones in my sodden pockets,
just like virginia woolf.

i can imagine taking the easy way out
by stepping too soon across a sidewalk
into an oncoming bout of traffic
and then it’d be over in a flash.

i can imagine a life without me
so much more easily than i can imagine
a life full of me because i can slip out of this story
far more simply than i ever managed to get into it.

i can imagine being the sleeping beauty
who pricks her finger on a spindle —
and then she falls back, back, back
till she hits the ground and never gets up.

i can imagine becoming the ghost
haunting so many blank pages
till i’m just another sorry tale
someone forgets to write.