Forget It By Jeff Weddle

I’m writing this more or less for you. 

I’m writing this for slipping on ice 

and beer drunk afternoons, 

long, aimless drives, 

slow walks at night, 

strange neighborhoods, 

cotton candy carnivals, 

folding knives in back pockets, 

easy reach. 

I’m writing this for the years 

we imagined one another. 

More or less all the years. 

I’m writing this for the hours we have 

forgotten 

and no one will ever suspect. 

I’m writing for the years still to come

with everything broken. 

I hope you are well 

and would tell you I am fine 

but you are too smart 

for that. 

I’m writing this to be rid of it.

You with your delicate gaze

fixed away from me. 

I’m writing this now

because I am lost.

And now, at last, it is gone. 

Jeff Weddle is the Alabama Beat Poet Laureate (2024-2026). His latest book is Letter to Xhevdet Bajraj (Uncollected Press, 2025). His work has appeared in Albanian and Spanish translation