The Department of Angsty Romantics

A Tortured Poet’s Regret — No2

let it be said
there’s always one poet
who falls for her professor
before the end of the semester.

it happens
because we’re all human,
and humans have emotions
that are pesky and cynical at once.

there’s a girl who calls herself
an angsty romantic
even as she writes emo odes
to ghosts she’s lost and never reclaimed.

of course she would
fall, fall, fall
for someone above her
station, dynamic, sphere.

of course she would
fall, fall, fall
for someone beyond her
class, age, realm of being.

angsty romantics —
oh, yes, they hurt themselves
on the knives of pretty prose
even as they know so much better.

he had kind eyes,
he had a full-lipped smile,
he had an ease of self that intimidated,
and he was someone who drew the eye at will.