Better Man

This is the story of a boy
    and a girl....
Freshman math class, sideways glances, innocent smiles behind full brown eyes.
A gorgeous man beneath all that he thought he'd be. 
A gorgeous woman beneath all she didn't want to be.


It didn't end the way they had hoped--
                it never does. 


Too much time apart, living lives so separate, different, but commonly painful, 
smooth skin lost beneath scars with battered hearts on sleeves.


A likely reunion, now shed of their teenaged awkward bodies--easier to taste and feel and 
               bite and bruise....


I stood before you naked, all my scars shining by the light of your hallway,
And I saw the rawness and comfortable familiarity reflected in your eyes. 
You stood before me, in the shadows of your darkened room, 
With outstretched arms, calling me home. 


I let you touch me--the insides of my wrists--
And I looked past your bloodshot eyes
And your uneven breathing
And your slurred speech


I was desperate to connect the dots 
          and the broken ties
                 and fill the emptiness 
in us both.


And I loved you,
            again,
Like I did then, 
             before.


You won't admit to me
               or you
That you are different, that there's a problem.
You hold onto that image of you, of me, 
           of us,
before we were both run over and pushed away and torn apart.


For that, you will always be mine.