[poetry] "things you need to know" by kai cheng thom

[hermionesviolin]

things you need to know

he will leave you
he will leave you like the rain
he will leave you like summer
he will leave you quickly
without explanation or goodbye
he will leave you unexpectedly
he will leave you high and dry
he will leave you for another woman
he will leave you for another man
he will leave you and ask you to pack him a brown bag lunch for the road
he will leave you without remembering to water the plants
or turn off the radiator
he will leave you like the ocean
he will leave you with bruises
and missing teeth
and internal bleeding in the tender places
and missing virginity
he will leave you like youth
he will leave you old
he will leave
he will leave you like the autumn
your leaves are scattered on the ground
he will leave you without kissing
or apology
he will leave you like the flesh
of mollusk leaving its shell
he will leave you hollow
a fossil
a relic of earlier times
he will leave you with his shape
impressed upon your bones
he will leave and damned be the compromises
that you made so he would stay with you
honey, he is leaving
he has left
he is gone
he is gone
he is not coming back
you are what
is left behind
you are the thing
he could not take away
you cannot be stolen, ransacked, looted
like an emptied bank account of an burgled house
you are the tough old tissues, the exquisite scars
you are the thing that would not die

Comments

[musesfool]

I like that one a lot.

[hermionesviolin]

:)

You were the first person I thought of when I decided to post this (on account of your habit of posting poetry).

I'm currently making my way through her collection A Place Called No Homeland (Arsenal Pulp Press).