#OctPoWriMo – Day 21 – “Just Go, I’ll Be Fine”

Just Go, I’ll Be Fine // by Jennifer Patino

Would it have mattered? If I insisted
you listened, dragged you by your frizzed hair,
forced you, saved you, forced you, pleaded

with you? Your mind wrapped around me
like wire and I could unloose you, unleash you
I couldn’t pry you off, you were barbed wire

You were my crown of thorns and I longed
to wear you because your hurt was the easy pain
and your love was the bloom crushed in my hand

I wanted your fragrance I wanted you safe
but you stayed and disappeared into the stains
of a stranger’s couch cushions and I’m looking

for you still in every pillar of smoke, in every
stoplight that just turns green, and in the
lingering taste of regret from every mouth

watering memory in the garden of my middle aged mind
You grow in me like a cancer and I want no cure
or remission I want you here telling me not to worry

over and over again
telling me not to worry