I Must Betray You

2024 Poetry Project — #1

Photo by Amelia Cui on Unsplash

i don’t think you realize
that i’m hanging onto every grasp of you —
but you haven’t seen it, what i've seen,
and i wish you would stand on my team.

seen but not heard —
that’s what you are,
a magicless specimen
who’s hungering without knowing.

i don’t know if you or i
will do the betraying —
but i know you hate me
from the way your eyes tingle.

you’re standing with past wrongs —
i know, i know, i know —
because judging books by their covers
never got me far at all in the first place.

yet here you are,
standing on a precipice —
and i wonder if you really know
what war you’re waging.

i want to be there for you,
to know you true,
but you’re not allowing me
a simple grasp of tides.

the stories come to me
whether i like it or not —
and i want you to understand
i’m…