The Unmaking of Bliss

A Poem

Photo by Abbie Bernet on Unsplash

perhaps it’s a better scheme
when i don’t follow your lines
or anything about you, really,
as if you’re just a stranger.

the truth is i watch you
as if you’re something special —
but every goddamn time
you just prove me wrong.

what were the words worth?
what are any of them worth?
why should i hold them dear
when you just throw them away?

other girls plead their case,
other girls bend their knees,
other girls beg with regard —
but you’re a liar to all of them.

i thought i could know you
beyond the mask,
beyond the veil,
but you were just another monster.

quickening, quickening —
that’s the case of it, I’m afraid,
as if i’m nothing more than straw
to be rumpled and tossed away at will.

and every time i see you,
i think what a man you’ve been
and what a man you’ve concocted,
all for the…