Some people have a way...

of delivering a death blow
so that you’re not sure if
you’ve been stabbed or stroked;

a disgustingly poetic
coup de grâce
I had never known
until mere days ago.

Left with only confusion to bear,
no solid matter
could weigh as heavily
as those words, those words,

those words that have now run together
into a muddy puddle in my mind.

Was it a yes?
a no?
a question?
a statement?

I must admit, I must,
that I don’t have the strength to ask
and just barely
the strength
to care.

I only know that I was happy,
and I asked for nothing more,
and I trusted the executioner
to give me a hand up
rather than an ax to the throat;

how sad that the need
for one to define
has become the need
(not the desire)
for the other to decline.

01/28/2008

Posted on 01/28/2008
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