your lipstick stains the mug
sitting in my kitchen sink.
it still smells faintly
of cheap red wine.
i can’t quite
find the heart
to wash it off
just yet.

i stutter, punch-drunk
and slurring syllables.
you left me
tongue-tied
in more ways than one.
i’d hoped to twist
disparate thoughts
like twine
to form a rope
to tether us
tightly together
but, instead,
i formed a noose
to fit over my head.

i knew
right from the start
that i could never
measure up,
but i brushed
the thought aside
when you quaked
with bliss
at the furtive slip
of my fingertips.
disbelief suspended,
if only temporarily.

somewhere
along the line
we lost touch.
infinitely returning
to snap-shot
memories—
reminding me
eternally
i will never
be enough.