Hangman

This... this was hard to write... Thoughts?

_ _ _ _ _

5 letters
Playing hangman with costly results

12,478 words it could possibly be

...Can I buy a vowel?

You probably though I liked "U"
And I did
In fact I loved you
But just like the uncertainty in my letter choice
You were uncertain I was the one for you
I picked "U"

You picked "N" and "O"
One of us was wrong
And I found out too late that it was me.

I picked the right letter
Not the right girl...

_ _ U _ _

4 more letters

No more vowels to guess

And only 642 five letter words it could possibly be.

Choosing from 21 letters is hard?
Try risking it all on a girl who's one in a million.
To tell someone "I like u"
To then be told they were faking it
For 4 months

Four letters left to guess

Four months of not rightness (pun intended)
Coincidence?

All of this was just a pile of "S"

_ _ U S _

Three letters to guess
Two right answers back to back
And only 48 possible words for it to be.

*laughs* Haha look, it's us!
Meant to be together
Contained in letters

All we were
All we are
Just looking good on paper
But don't work together in life

A letter
I still need to guess a letter
But I don't even know who you "R"

_ R U S _

2 letters remain

And only 7 words it could be

Just two blank spaces on opposite sides of a word

Two blank faces
Letters apart
On opposite sides of a world

Distanced only by the wall they both put up
The impenetrable fortress they trapped themselves in
I don't have enough hair to be Rapunzel
But I've locked myself up in this castle
Sitting with me, myself, and I
Staring at my reflection
Reflecting on the memories that have kept me captive
Will I find freedom
By spilling the "T"

T R U S T
And just like that

Two letters in one guess

A word is complete...

...but completely absent from us

I trusted you
You said you trusted me
You broke my heart
My trust just went "delete"

I sacrificed my heart to love you
Sacrificed my time to care
Sacrificed my friends to adore you
Sacrificed my work to be there

And it didn't pay off

I'm here with an abundance of pain
An abundance of hurt
And a fake smile that hides all of it.

*cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese*
Take your photos, I'll be fine

Life moves on, in it's time
I'll make it through this, I already have

But don't expect me to trust you ever again.

Trust Issues are welcoming me with open arms
And I'm accepting their waiting invitation

Author's Note

Man this was hard to write. Poetically transferring the last convo I had with my ex into poetry was therapeutic, but it's still painful memories

I hope you enjoy reading, and if you relate, I'm sorry, trust issues suck don't they?!

Reviews

[barleygirl]

This is very inventive writing, with a good balance between "the game" and "reality". Too much hangman & this could've gotten too abstract, but you supply an ample amount of meat on the bones between letter lynching. The best thing about this poem is that you only barely reveal little glimpses of how much this hurt. I hate long blubbering accounts of heartbreak. Spilling reluctant hints of pain can sometimes feel more dramatic than an outpouring . . . we feel how hard this was to revisit, even without reading your author's note . . . but your confession about how hard this was to write (from an emotional point of view) -- interesting to me becuz I thought you meant the "hangman" part of the poem was hard to lay out logistically. Thank you for pointing me to this poem, to balance out my impressions of you as a writer (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Caleb is typing...]

I’m glad you liked it!
Thanks for the comment about the authors note LOL, it was actually fairly easy to write with the hangman format, but reflecting on the exact memory this is from was the difficult part about it.

Thank you Margie, I truly appreciate your feedback!

[Nomo]

I understand and relate to you, I liked how you artfully inserted hangman into this poem into your feelings. It's hard to get through, But sometimes day by day isn't enough but pen and paper are.

[Just Kim]

This is so good, I really enjoyed this write

[Coyote Poetry]

Outstanding use of words and thoughts. I liked the hangman game. I still play the game with the grandchildren. I liked how you made the words dance. Thank you for sharing the excellent poetry.
Coyote

[Caleb is typing...]

Thank you so much! It was funny how the hangman idea came to me, with it being in the midst of conversation, so I'm elated to hear you enjoyed reading it!

[Coyote Poetry]

The hangman game. Still fun to play and you are welcome.

[Kari Rakitan]

Despite the heavy subject matter, this is a fun format.

[Nix is typing...]

That poem that I wrote, Misunderstood, is about the same girl that he wrote about in this poem. See? She faked it for four months.

[Caleb is typing...]

Thank you for the comment! I agree, it was a fun format to write in, and though it was real and hard to write, I’m thankful of the final result. Tysm for reading this (:

[Nix is typing...]

Oh bt... I... I'm so sorry you had to go through this with her, I've known this pain before, I've felt this pain before, I've been where you were many many times... You just always seem to put my unspeakable thoughts into words for me. Reading this... I was literally to a point where I had no words, your writings are always so beautiful and they always get to me. Of course, 100/100

[Caleb is typing...]

Thank you so much 🥺🥺

[Nix is typing...]

Always a pleasure, bt ❤️