Caroline

16

this kind of love has no promise
regrettable, forgettable;
you leave me at the stairs with an apple core in my
teeth

you say you learned a while ago that people don’t
change for the better

this kind of love blooms in bright
blue;
silently rages in a deadweight room
stains the words we regret and spells our names
all wrong

so you play off your celebrity lookalikes
you want there to be only one of you

you look up when she glides into the library
I absentmindedly scrape at the heat bubbles that
take shape on my fingernails

I’m reading the words and memorizing the
constellations your fingers draw on my arms
when your hand grazes my shoulder, we stick
from the sweat,

it’s okay to be careless, just once, just
this night
it’s okay to slouch in your
seat and forget to say thanks
you’re too grateful and I’m in shock
and time; time

peels, worst of all
routine
monotony
and one last dance, please
the discarded peach pit on the concrete, weathered
under the summer sun.