• corrode, by Alice C Meridian


    "you were so beautiful

    until you threw that bitterness on your face

    and corroded it

    irreparable, irreplaceable."

    ---

    but you are so irrelevant

    your heart was born in 1959

    and your body creaky

    almost as old

    but never weak enough to be mine.

    ---

    and his body so close to mine

    if i could forget a sweatshirt i'd be fine

    and if arms touching on a swing set

    would be erased

    i might not turn into

    a basket case

    ---

    but whatever

    it never

    works out anyway.

    "the sad bitterness was enough to fill her;

    man, if i could

    i would just kill her."

    you could
    slit my wrists for me

    cut out the middle man,

    i suppose

    or spray me with an acid hose

    or throw your bitterness back in my face

    ---

    you pathetic excuse for a person

    what a mess

    what a disgrace.