a poem by Jenna Humphrey (1 of 2)

another poem about you

i am in the car with my father and stepmother and mother
we pass dilapidated buildings in the countryside
i think about my sadness, how it is falling off of me like youth
i am sick from last night's liquor
and am thinking about you whose face is perfect
whose rejection is perfect
i let you have me last time and felt bad
this time i don't let you have me and i still feel bad
a song comes on about being young again and i talk to myself
as though i am crazy
about the two relationships you ruined
and the year i wasted in this town
so that i could come to the bar and stare at you
i thank you and i listen to the blues and feel hard words like floss
through teeth
or the rot on barns.

© by Jenna Humphrey

 
Gutter Eloquence Magazine ~ Issue #6 ~ November 2009    next poem