The Writing on the Wall

A Poem

Photo by Matt Flores on Unsplash

happiness comes quick,
like a knife strike in the dark —
but doesn’t that sad metaphor
mean something more to you now?

(lovers find themselves in thickening plots,
always trying to understand
in and of themselves
what they’ve done)

and love is a sordid tale,
written in ink like red wine,
till blood stain promises
make way for truth

and scalded in stone, slashed
across the gray pavement door,
is written the one thing we want
above all else, above all else, above all else

wanting you didn’t feel like enough,
so i stole you in secret

writing you into being didn’t feel like much,
so i cast you in a different lot

and the pages turn to tomes
as the sorry ends find their sorry ends —
and we realize what it means
to be bittersweet in tandem