The One

There is the one who got away 

The one you pushed away 

The one who helps you find your way 

Only the luckiest get the third woman last 

The rest 

Go looking for eyes that commit 

On the faces of women whove run off before you can beg them to stay 

How did I 

Become 

This 

Shadow 

Always waiting in my own wings 

Giving away curtain calls 

To whoever shares a shimmer 

How did I 

Become 

This 

Memory 

Of what used to be

Projecting futures 

In What could have been

Neither a story worthy 

Of me withering 

Here

Forever

For women who will not return

Who should not have left

But did anyway 

When did I forget the part where the woman sets me free 

The part I walk on my own two feet 

When did I forget 

The shape of myself I held 

Before my skin

Knew her hands

Before my lungs

Knew her breath

Before I was worried 

She’d forget 

When did I 

Agree to be 

This shackled skeleton version of me

In the waiting 

When do I 

Speak in present-tense again