Poem A Day, 024

024 Weight

For today’s prompt, take the phrase “Tell It to the (blank),” replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write the poem. Possible titles include: “Tell It to the Hand,” “Tell It to the Judge,” “Tell It to the Six-Foot Bunny Rabbit,” and so on.

So I didn't like this prompt. I decided to work on some poems from 2012, when I failed to make the Poem A Day challenge. This was the eighth day from that year, and the final one. It was a difficult poem to write, but important as I began to cut ties to harmful relationships in an effort to start something healthy and new. I wrote poems about my repeating exes that year, but never published them. This is one. I'll post at least one other pretty soon.

Weight

Naive

believing

in us against

the weight of years,

against the pull of the

time you spent with her.

You

had the

accumulative

habits and rituals

of a life that began

in your shared youth.

While

I held out

only comfort

and love without

guilt or belittlement,

without any expectation.

Only

I hoped

it would be

enough for us,

this small stone

for us to build upon.

I thought that in choosing,

you would choose me.

I didn’t calculate

the weight

of time

with

her.