by Iris Aloe
“Do you know him?,”
My friend asks, curiously
“I used to,” I reply,
Slightly dark
“Oh no, what happened?,”
She inquires
“He’s my…” I begin,
But I never finish…
I was gonna say ex,
Cause that’s your label in my head
But we never dated;
Cause you shared your crush on me,
Then immediately shut us down
But I can’t claim “friend,”
As a suffix
Cause we were always more than that;
Now I’m at an impasse:
Stuck in silence
As my brain searches for a way to name:
Every day we
Spent
The awfully tragic way we
Ended
You were something,
That’s certified–
You were once prevalent enough to haunt my life
And I finally reach,
An appropriate nomenclature:
So I open my mouth and start a new sentence:
“I mistook him for someone else.
I don’t know that guy.”
I’m a liar