Unnamed pOem

By Laura Dent

I long for your affection,

your touch to ameliorate the fog in my mind,

the anxieties and the remains of arguments

that run riot through my veins and leave a stain on our name.

But I only feel the isolation of feeling

like a useless weight on your shoulders.

You tried to shake me off,

but I clung

like poison ivy to your lungs

while you laugh with your friends

and make relationships that haven’t been touched, tainted,

used and abused,

       wrung of their last lease of life too many times.

Why can’t I just shut up, swallow it or learn to let it go.