ten

I.  When you see the obituaries in the paper tomorrow morning,

    my cause of death will only say your name.

    Make of it what you will.

II.  I was pure before you came along.

III.  I don't know if she told you, but I went to your house.

         I wanted to collect my things, disappear from your life forever.

           I wanted it to be a slap in your face when all you had left was

          my keys and your memories.

                                     I didn't expect to find my s**t packed in boxes.

IV.  For what it's worth, she's very pretty.

V.  Sometimes I sit on the park bench

     and think of all the different times

     you kissed me there. Then I look

     around and wonder how many of

     the other girls are doing the same

     thing.

VI.  My life revolved around us, and

      if you weren't by my side your

      name was still buzzing around

     my head like a fly crazed in the

     final hour of his short life.

VII.  I should've suspected something was wrong

       when you stopped writing me poems and

       soliloquies and began regurgitating the

       words of others.

VIII.  There was nothing more beautiful than our first kiss. I wish I

        could remember the last one, but when it happened I was

        under the impression that there were many more to come and I

        didn't realise I needed to ingrain it in my memory.

IX. My friends all warned me that the tar in your lungs wouldn’t fix my broken soul,

     it would only tarnish the edges and make it impossible for anyone else to

     stick. I should’ve listened.

X.  I really should’ve listened.