Missed Signals

A Poem

Photo by Edward Eyer from Pexels

i should have known

the worst was yet to come

i was always chasing you —

me alone in the loser’s circle

i thought it’d be a game

worthy of all my time

yet it didn’t go that way

i fell for the smiles,

the body-shaking laughs,

and every manner of speech

i traded secrets for passion

even as your lips shut tight,

barring my entry every which way

i considered us simple,

twined like woven fabrics,

but we fell apart in knots

i burned and ignited,

but you chilled to the bone

till we were just dust together

i could save nothing

and you were the executioner

timing us just right for extinction —

oh, woe, woe, woe is the hour

that i began to count seconds

without you to excite me

i was nothing

when i thought we were everything

The Poems That Didn’t Get Away