I found you the way I
Find things on my floor;
Sifting through,
Picking up at random,
Till I fix upon a useful item-
Sometimes forgetting whether or
not
It was what I was looking for.
I loved you the way
Boiling water creates steam;
Inevitably,
Predictably,
Without a second thought-
A by-product of you wanting me
first
And me needing to be wanted.
I trusted you the way I
Trust a power supply;
Unconditionally,
Expectantly,
Even if you broke down-
I knew you’d be back up again,
This western world system causes
complacency.
I needed you the way
An umbrella needs rain;
Undoubtedly,
Quite desperately,
My very purpose depending upon
The rain that you created
To serve my self-defined, true
purpose.
I let you the way I
Let weather pull at me;
Tugging and pushing,
Invading and insisting,
Yet clearly natural and
unavoidable,
A part of life I must accept-
You were both a storm and a sunny
day.
I stayed with you the way
A knife stays with a fork;
Co-dependent,
Socially acceptable,
Unable to be thought of as separate-
Used together in unison,
Redundant if not with you at all.
You hurt me the way
Squash mixes with water,
Slowly,
Completely,
Entirely permeating every part,
Of everything I was or could be-
Polluting me to my very core.
I fell down the way a
Tacked on poster falls from the
wall;
All at once,
Without warning,
The signs only there upon
More careful observation,
Causing great alarm at my
suddenness.
I left you the way that
Ice starts to crack,
Violently,
Loudly,
Looking as though it wasn’t-
But being the natural course;
I meant to leave you all along.
