In college, I dated Bonnie, a writer,
though she claimed to be Helen,
the most beautiful woman on earth,
and only undressed in the dark
I’m doing this to protect you,
she whispered, as serious as rain.
She told me that she wrote
about me every day,
a lie I only half believed,
wondering what other fictions
were in her journal
or on the tip of her tongue.
She showed me poems
with our names erased,
saying it was easier to pretend.
No matter what I believed,
getting the truth from her
was like trying to peel water.
Impersonating herself,
she always stood
at the outskirts of affection,
words circling the drain
or in hiding, crouching,
long after she was gone.
MICHAEL MINASSIAN lives with his wife in Southern New England. He is a Contributing Editor for Verse-Virtual, an online poetry journal. His poetry collections Time is Not a River, Morning Calm, and A Matter of Timing as well as a chapbook, Jack Pays a Visit, are all available on Amazon. For more information: https://michaelminassian.com
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