Thelma Sidestory

My friend, I’d chase after

youthful energetic overemotion

anywhere

absolutely

but I go sideways,

bypass completely

So I try

just to try

and gain the criticism: “It’s not up

to you;

it’s not your responsibility.”

And they say, forget about her.

But what kind of friend would do that sort of thing?

While I’m young, I have

strength that is

energy that is

power, lacking influence

And I am not distant

distance is felt

We are not unfeeling

We feel everything, like

how the cells in tissues slow

and stagnate and we shrink

our skeletons splinter and

our capillaries are too thin

Underneath the ribcage

avoided it last-second-like and it could’ve killed me

reflexes protect what exactly…?

The promise of a youthtime, I pull the soft emotions

out of the beams in her body

the deadly-weaponed springtime

of life

The friend I understood has grown mysterious

her thoughts are oblique shadows cast against

and obscuring our shared past

But, forget about her…?

While I’m young, nothing will ‘destroy’ me

But I age and

I expire, with

a festering, unhealed

memory