Letter from a Once Gap-toothed Girl

Twelve years old and the first fight

We’d ever had during a game of Cops & Robbers,

You’d escaped the cardboard cell, shed invisible

Shackles from bony boy ankles and said,

“Good guys don’t always win in the end”, and your

Holey, spared tooth grin promised me bad guys don’t always lose

 

Must have been fifteen, must have been stupid,

Seven minutes of heaven in Connor Knox’s closet

With you, and I made hell’s invitational list,

You looked like an angel, but did not kiss with an

Ounce of purity and the shock of your breath on my neck

Had the burning of Lucifer and the sweetness of God

 

Junior year was ending, the eighteen year old summer just

Beginning and I had spun the bottle a little too hard

And became faint of the heart for a roommate

Of yours with whom I shared many a kiss, but I could not black

Out and erase you from my thoughts with a most unfortunate amnesia;

I wasn't sure I'd ever forget you

 

Tomorrow I’ll take a flight to California, say goodbye to the

Only home I’ve ever known, and greet the only college

That accepted me, but tonight at the going away dinner party put

On by my crow eyed, graying mom and dad, your feet

Play a last game with my own, one neither of us can win

Nor lose

 

Sitting across from you now, I don’t know if you’re

A devil in a handsome suit

 

Or just the kind of boy who shows girls a good time

With all the bad, bad things their tongue can do

 

And I honestly don’t know if I've won 

or I've lost you 

Reviews

[Tomislav Petricevic]

There's power in this, I like it. This is the kind of "romantic" poetry that's worth reading, the kind that packs a punch, you know? Good work. :)

[devon]

Thank you so much! I'm glad you thought it had something to it! :)

[Tomislav Petricevic]

You are very welcome! :D

[Eva]

I really like the descriptiveness of the poem. I can envision it when reading.

[devon]

Thank you!