HE 

he set the precedent.

i imagine my mother crying. 

i imagine my sister,
twenty years old,

asking
‘why don’t you love me?’

i imagine my father
trying to read 
divorce papers 

through salty eyes

after my mother left
because

he set the precedent. 

all he/she/i
have ever know
is 
absence.

since you left
in every way possible,

the only thought
i’ve been able to process 

is the doctor
telling my 
teenage mother
—
her arms holding her daughter 
for the first time—

“sorry ma’am, he is 
never coming back,

would you like some morphine
to 
take his place?”


2. YOU 

you set the precedent.

you conditioned me
like Pavlov;

it’s only real if it hurts. 

so every time someone
new
touches me

i tell them to wrap their fingers 

around my throat

until crystals pierce my vision

and i can’t say what i want 

because that’s the way your hurt felt

because 
you

set 

the 
precedent.