Byline: Alexandra Jade

No One Loves Me Like You Do

A soft and rotten moment of loving you
hits the pavement like seasonal fruit gone
overripe.
Skipping to the part where you leave
a cigarette burning in my ashtray,
I take out eyes swollen by another’s prying
that pass through the mouth and caress
the teeth dead. Scared they will flay me,
say open wide, and betray my secret appetites
and unrighteous desire for the same thing
everyone else wants. I lay still as August heat
in the unmade bed, a love motionless as a lake
covers the deception of a quiet moment.
I dissect this land of exile for instances
too small to be seen,
and get my voice snagged on emotion.

––Alexandra Jade

The Lugubrious Game

While you were busy multiplying,
begetting superfluous spawn,
I was lying in the darkness,
emitting solitary groans.

––John Tottenham