It all began when you came in from the rain –
Maybe, if you cleared your messes up, I wouldn’t complain.
You tell me to remember when we first met,
In the cafeteria – ironically, I was the one who came in wet.
You laughed when I told you later my explanation –
That I’d fallen in a puddle trying to reach my destination.
In the classroom, you offered me your sweatshirt, and
I refused, of course. Even then, your clothes were covered in dirt.
An eyebrow raised, you had sloped away and left me lingering
Over your sun-bleached hair; freckled skin; that perfect disarray.
I remember days with you – in the sun, sipping warm Coke and
Leaning against that old oak tree, begging for one smoke of
Your cigarette. You laughed and held it out of my reach.
But what about the days that thunder? Then we are rebels who breach
The rules of lovers. I pushed you in that lake, and when
I was scared you had drowned, it was only then – only then
That you reached up with a sea-caked hand, pulling me in.
But then we turned sour; and your face was sallow and thin,
When I told you we were over, and that you had the final win.
Those days were a war-zone, emotions shed like blood over a field;
And I was alone, unarmed; naked but for my waning love as a shield.
Once I had been sweet. But my need for you brought considerable cost,
And you stole all I once owned and the innocence I lost.
I know you never liked poetry, and - I’ll admit it too –
It’s the reason I can’t stop writing the words that I lost on you.