LGBTQ+ Poem: Lingering smell, by A. M. Mychlinger

keep caving in to miss you
Like I ask strangers for a smoke
Just as I convince my friends it’s over
Count’s up on promises I broke
I’m another party for the green light
All the way across the bay
Murmuring over the cold water
Rings like a funeral lead astray
All to repeat, rewind, revisit
Resuscitate the past
Walking these streets, a live exhibit –
Someone convinced each day’s their last
Know the backends of the alleys
Like I knew your body in the dark
Always walked this town, a phantom
Invisible, but left a mark
And I’m not a son or daughter
Only a thing that’s moulded wrong
And though you’d scoff, that’s the exact hell
You swore to take on in your song
The moon rolls those same eyes
It did when hearing your love confessions
Now it comes to call my bluff
When I say I learnt my lesson
Keep the aftertaste in my mouth
Let it burn, so I won’t cry
Ask for a cig, ‘quitting next month’
A double hit, a silent sigh
Lonely boat against the current
And I’ve been paddling all night
Haven’t gone on or gone back
But didn’t lose sight of the light.

Author: poetryfest

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