The Last Poem (Boxes)

Jun 07, 2008 - 11:54 AM PST

I know how it is, to lose a friend.
And it isn’t that my friend is gone,
I’d lost plenty others before that point,
And been broken many times over,
But it was the way it ended:
With screaming and tears,
Slapping faces in the locker room,
Angry glances in my direction from every angle,
And words meant to destroy me.
Well, they didn’t.
I’m finally over it – I put all of your crap
In one box, away from me.
For I outgrew you long ago,
And the calendar no longer shows 2005,
Year of death and destruction,
Of loss and mourning.
Year of IVs coming home with mom,
A grandfather and a totaled truck,
And holding a dead puppy in my arms.
A best friend and an old cat in boxes,
One in my room and one in the ground,
And the last, forever locked inside my head.