Pen Pals for Life
for D.B.A.

so you want to be
the only woman in my life
poetic life or otherwise
in my pen, in my heart
or on my mind

demand such a degree
of commitment from me
when you hog you
on the other hand
can have your man

relationship you advertise,
broadcast, display to all the world

him you display, I you downplay
I your dog on the side
but I must have or can have
no one besides

you mammal, you animal, you monster
you sinister- you wicked woman
awful friend of mine

deserving of being placed
before a firing squad
burned alive at the stake
deserving of the guillotine

instead, head in the clouds
self righteous, holier-than-thou
suggest
you are spotless, without sin

momentary lapse into unfaithfulness
word or two to a woman or two
and I'm a bigger sinner than Delilah

the biggest double crosser
you have ever come across

when I must live with betrayal
like a great stone upon my chest
like a slab of cement
across my mind and mouth
across the entrance to my life

unable to go nor come
in the scheme of things
in this game of life
in the name of love

you are insane
you suggest I am
that I be taken away

I want to take you out to dinner
I want us to make up
I want us to be like- to be what
we never were

I want it to be like it should be
like it should have been

I want to have to turn my penlight
at nothing, at no one else in the dark

I want to be able to find my way home
from wherever, whenever
with my eyes closed


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2010
2:37 p.m. 01.11.10