Antagonist
by Katrina Eckel
After all, it didn’t really matter what I thought
Before I had decided, you were already in motion
Careening down the path of your life
Daring to take the hits as they came and I looked at my hands
Evaporating into the still night air
Fearful that they’d disappear if I moved too fast
Gathering the courage to breathe in even measures
Hating that I could only watch you run as
I simply sat, dissolving into nonexistence and you
Joked that it was because I had nothing to hold me together making
Knives of your words and they cut me and I just
Looked at the cuts they left, the faint grains of sand rising and dissipating
My blood like little particles of moonlight
Nothing to hold them together.
Opening my eyes was the hardest of all
Painful even when I saw that it was you with your
Quick tongue and reckless laughter
Rushing through life as though you wanted to be the first
Staggering through the ribbon at the finish line
Trying to pretend that to you nothing mattered, but I
Understood now that it wasn’t something you were running to
Visibly trying to seem untouched
Watching me from the corner of your eye the whole time with
Xerox copies of a smile you’d perfected long ago
Youth was bleeding from you as surely as it was from me, and
Zipping through life hadn’t saved you at all.
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