Thin Line Between Love and Hate
Allegra Keys
Tom Howard/Margaret Reid Poetry Contest 2015 (view all the winners)
Honorable Mention, Margaret Reid, Traditional Verse
I unequivocally, despise you
I can't lie as you do and say
You matter to me even when you don't, so
Understand
This is the point where I walk away
You'll never hear me utter the phrase:
You're everything I ever desired
Honestly,
I only craved your sticky-sweet consistency
A promise that the fruits of your presence would never dry up on me
That's when you decided to bestow upon me
A vacancy behind my glass-like ribs where my heart once lived
Plus
The sharp shards of broken promises in my brain
When I unlocked my doors and you said I was better than
The One
I should have known you were
Someone I couldn't trust
I was a doe-eyed fool to tell myself that you were
My childhood sepia dream, finally, becoming an adult technicolor reality
Growing old with you would be
A source of perpetual negativity
I refuse to be
Your own personal cheerleader, from now on
You can expect
More raggedy baggage and fresh, tender scar tissue
Because from me, you won't get
Anything else
Don't let yourself believe
You are my ever-glowing light
I don't need you,
You're a lunatic to entertain the idea that
I am, unequivocally, in love with you
(read from bottom up)
