You got better, I got bitter.

I had a home
and I hid a
secret in the floor
boards. I would
like to say I was
bored but I know I
was only lonely and
tired of drinking. If
you can hide a
body in a closet—
you can hide a
memory under the
bed. I like to think
I did not mean for it
to be this way.
But now, his
skin has fallen and
he is a skeleton in
my closet and his mem-
ories have spawned a
monster under my bed.
I like to think I
did not mean for it
to be this way.
I am hoping my
husband never
taps on the walls.
They will
tap back.

Love hurts
Is what they have been telling you
And you thought that they meant
when Morgan told you that engineering was more important than you, or
when Michael didn't recognize you
In the grocery store, or
when Matt didn't talk to you after you had *** in his fourth floor downtown condo.



Love hurts
When your father would rather
Put a cigarette into coal asthmatic lungs
Than catch the 14:23 train to
Roma Termini station.
Your head was in your mother's lap
For each and every of the 32 minutes
Of countryside crossing.

He comes
and goes.
He comes
and goes.
There's always marks
and always traces.
I make
the same mistakes
in different
places.

Of back rows, front rows—
Broken eye contact—Day dreams—
And quantum physics.