Poetry Thursday

The challenge this week is to share a "poem that deals with an intense personal experience." I've never really talked about this experience before, but for some reason, today I'm posting a poem about it that the whole world can view. Go back to high school with me for a minute...



Forever Altered

We’ve been pretending that this doesn’t exist.
Now we’ve both said it out loud.
Can we still pretend?
If not, how do I make this choice?
I sit here, propelled toward you
seemingly without a choice,
like a negative charge
toward her positive match.

The last conversation I had with him,
I told him I loved him and hung up the phone.
Could it be true
while here I sit
and my soul aches
because I didn’t meet you first;
didn’t love you first?
How could I have known then
when I promised him those things
that this would come next?
How could I be ready
for this kind of love?
I never knew
it could rock you to the core;
that it could set you on fire;
that it could infuse every thought and emotion.

If I leave
was it all a lie?
It doesn’t feel like a lie,
but to him it will.
Our language needs more words
to describe “love.”
Now I see obvious differences—
I love you both.
It is not the same love.
If I leave
will you come with me?
His best friend
and his girlfriend.
How do we do that
to someone we both love?

I am only a person.
Am I supposed to resist
a soul altering love?
Am I to wish
that I didn’t get myself
into this situation?
Because then
I would be missing
this.
And right now
Nothing else matters anymore.
But
this.


To read other poems from Poetry Thurday participants, go here.