It Should’ve Been You

A Poem

Photo by shri on Unsplash

oh, these nights are hazy
when I’m looking back to days
when you filled up my world with light —
so much that I couldn’t bring myself to look away.

you could have kissed me like a storm,
and I wouldn’t have tried to tame you.

and then the days would string along
like little soldiers marching in a long line
to some uncertain end we couldn’t anticipate,
perhaps over a cliff or down into hellish waters.

you could have laughed right in my face,
and I would have joined in the humor.

but you weren’t that ever after prince, were you,
meant to banish away all my feelings of torment
that told me I didn’t deserve you — not one ounce —
while the wolves at your door bayed for my blood?

you could have promised me a full moon globe,
and I would have thought you’d snatched it from the sky.

at midnight, it’s so quiet sometimes
that I have so much time to think and ponder
all the ways this could have gone right instead of wrong —
but each time I just come…