bread, butter and other luxuries

With you, I'm willing to settle for seconds

A quick touching of hands, a smile between words

A hand on my lower back, a kiss on the cheek

Nothing that lasts beyond a moment

I think about seconds as I reach for another slice of bread

Slather butter on it, as if soon, cows will go extinct

You make a face from across the table, and I laugh

These small luxuries are all I have

A cup of coffee to my right

An offer you have never made

"Oh you are leaving" you once said

But never "stay for a while longer"

the end

the days turn into weeks

the weeks turn into months

and before you know it

we'll be counting years since we last spoke

purloin

When you hurt me with your words

So sharp, they reminded me of glass

Pieces of a mirror that would cut the hands

That tried to pick them up, capture the reflection

Of a face that winces at the pain, the blood

I tucked away the hurt, smiled through it

Instead turned to little thefts, malicious takings

Of what was yours first

And you would put on a brave face, say you didn't

Care, everything was mine to take

We played this game for so long

There was nothing left to call yours

Except for all the hurt that settled in

Among the stolen things

tone

The breeze brings with it the slightest chill

But the heat remains an undertone

Like that hint of meanness in your voice

When you say the sweetest things to me