Member-only story
Our Kinds of Mistakes
A Poem
we told ourselves we had the rest of our lives
to get things right, to get things right —
but here i am sitting at the kitchen table,
counting every bill i share with a man i don’t love.
if i close my eyes, i can remember it well:
how i threaded my fingers in your hair,
how i brushed my lips across yours like a vow,
how i laughed and said you’d always be mine.
oh, we were such stupid kids,
thinking we knew it all.
oh, we were such lonely souls,
craving every bit of sun.
now i’m dusting houses for a living,
all my dreams far off as if they’ll wait for me,
and all those notebooks i scribbled in
lay untouched in the back of my closet.
if i called you now, you’d answer out of pity
without ever asking a question about me,
and the best i could do was draw you out
from that party crowd you’ve come to love.
oh, i was such a silly fool,
thinking i knew you best.
