Sleight of Hand

A Poem

Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

the red in me
asks the blue of you
just what the hell you wanted
out of careful liaisons

(secrets whispered in the dark) —

and you can’t tell me you loved me,
never like that,
when there were so many signs
pointing of the truth downwind.

i rage, rage, rage
against the corporeal nature
of our heavenly bodies
and wonder why

(why you even thought to think
i could ever see past what you did
in the dark spaces where i couldn’t see you) —

and you should be sorry,
cast in doubt all the time,
wondering if your star’s going
to flicker out of being at a moment’s notice.

and i’m a wayward soul
(it’s true, it’s true, it’s true) —
and i’m a captive soul
(it’s true, it’s true, it’s true) —

but i wanted to be so much more
than i was in petty circumstances
in the blinding abyss of a moment
that cast me in shades…