But You (Poem)

 

 

Slumming it

With you, my friend,

Keeping me laughing,

Extreme in all things;

 

Swinging purses,

Rocking our blue jeans,

Dollar pitchers,

Alley door waiting.

 

Across the parking lot—

Slightly slick—

We prance with youth,

Toward the smoky dive,

 

When the wind whips by,

Snagging our satchels.

Mine drifts on the breeze

And is gone.  I saw nothing,

 

But you, on the ground,

In a death embrace,

Clutching yours close

To your chest.  With a thump,

 

It is taken.  And you

Lie stunned and enraged.

I shrug my shoulders,

I shiver off thoughts

 

Of what might have happened.

But you, you were meant

To know the night,

To confront and prevail.

 

You stomped me off

To the stationhouse,

On tape, you bore witness,

You plotted revenge.

 

While me, I whispered.

I whined and I whimpered.

I only know courage

By day.

 

Copyright Andrea LeDew 2017