Six Quick and Easy Steps to Lose a Friend is a segmented poem of sorts, that I wrote several months back, but never really had the courage to share.
Six Quick and Easy Steps to Lose a Friend
Yesterday when I got out of bed in the morning,
my feet went through the floor.
"A penny for your thoughts?"
I wanted to tell him,
but my tongue was glued to the roof of my mouth.
It was easier to let my shoulders lie.
And nobody could call them out on their crime.
Shrugs can mean a million things.
There is something wrong with their eyes.
When I look into them...
I can't see myself anymore
She loved them so much,
that it made her heart swell.
They had no idea.
It made her want to scream it in their faces,
but she didn't.
Instead, she let her heart get heavier and heavier,
Until there was nothing left to do, but be rid of the burden.
At the slightest request, her eyes
(that had been patiently awaiting it), obliged.
Now we are sitting next to each other.
And I am glad that dates are sticky and difficult to eat,
because when we lick and pick at our teeth with our tongues,
the smacking sounds keep us company.
They make the silence more bearable.
And for the first time in a long time, it doesn't feel suffocating.
Anything can be gotten used to.
We were on our hands and knees looking for words.
We looked behind doors and under coffee tables,
beds and at the backs of forgotten drawers.
We looked in the pockets of others and inside bags,
behind paintings and under hats.
We scrambled around, desperate
for vowels and consonants.
Screamed from atop mountains,
for any letters to spare.
Hunted for them under cupboards and on rooftops
only to find them depressingly bare.
After searching high and searching low,
we even threw open the windows.
And after we had run out of places to look in,
we began inventing our own.
I looked for words in the neighbour's putrid breath.
And a not quiet innocent shrug,
You looked in a mask, a staged laugh.
I searched in a hesitant hug.
I looked in dreary bus journeys.
You seemed to grow as dull as dust.
Then in our desperation and despair,
we found the courage to look into each other's eyes
and found nothing there.
you thought you saw a hint of an 'm' or an 'n'.
I thought I caught the glimpse of an 'f'.
That could mean familiarity or fucks,
of which there were none given.
But regardless of how things turned out between us,
Nobody can deny,
we started out ordinarily.
As ordinarily as exceptional friends do.
with trunks full of words,
Pockets full of hugs,
and a million colourful smiles to go with each,
But we used our words up too fast.
Our pockets rendered empty,
our smiles lost their luster.
\we were left aghast.
Now we stand before one another in silence.
Our presence in each other's vicinity,
the only reminder of the times gone.
We open our mouths and our lips frame the words we lost to time.
