at first, when you sat next to my friend
and we got introduced as acquaintances
I thought nothing about you.
another kinda-pretty girl
that I probably wouldn’t crush on
and as such irrelevant to anything else.
I should’ve known you were different.
I don’t know what changed.
and not dare to prod me away.
why not distance from the egotistical moron?
who liked to goad bullies and then pour
about their “traumas” and trivialities
that no one would give recognition to.
the epitome of attention-seeking
who possessed such a troubled mind -
frothed with such worldly and otherworldly sins -
that the crevasses and creases of such
reminisced the scaffolds of the abyss.
sometimes even reply wittily.
mimicking my cthulhic broth
that wasn’t supposed to be infectious.
at least, not to an angel like you.
your existence became the reason for mine.
you were the shrine of life.
my holy grail for flourishing inspiration.
mortality taste-testing heaven.
and now, I really did find you -
the round spectacles and otherwise neutral expression
your simple ponytail and fleeting eyes
and the rare grins that grasped glimpses
skip ahead to the true theatrics.
despite the truth already rotted into oblivion
and our peers rolling their eyes
to the hopeless euphoria I lapsed into
when you were in close proximity.
and of course, we have the rejection:
“sorry, I only see you as a friend”
which was far out from the truth.
and not in the hopeful way.
I don’t even know how you called me that.
how I deserved such a hallowed privilege.
a repulsive, fanatical idiot like myself.
it was only me trying to sidle next to you
get up close to see your face, your smile
with perverted, sans photogenic glances
and forcible emotions clawing for reaction.
for your empathy. your kindness.
I the sole driver of this forsaken tether
that you could’ve just fractured anytime.
why didn’t you slaughter me out?
weed me as another snaring vine?
why didn’t you lay pesticide on your words?
if only to ward away a devil’s apprentice?
or just simply to exist without wilting?
now under such a naive guise:
a bond testifying as teen romance
dictated by mythical depictions of outlandish fiction
and exacerbated by desperate imagination
begging for emotional triggers
and bluffing normalities.
yet all that changed was the name
as we continued to postpone
our mediocre variations of love.
manifesting in apathetic texts
sipping what little expressive grace
and leeching it off to the ether.
all that did was lead to a year of renewal
built on the foundation of anti-truth.
and only then did I finally realise
the furtive attempts now blatantly fallible.
though you said so yourself -
and how much you later denied it
as those tendrils coalesced in retrospective guilt -
the words that lay the blame upon
“you guilt-tripped me into liking you.
because I really didn’t want to break your heart.
I thought of you as more than a friend
but less than a crush.”
more or less the message.
you cannot fathom how such insurrection
against my envisioned utopia of naivety
castrating its rivets with love-struck rust
and grinding the ashes of budding whims
to be left in the awkward assonance of high school.
how utterly well-deserved.
mutilate myself beyond repair
flailing out flares before
retracting sorrowful serpents.
a romantic turned too sentimentalist
now hard-boiled under societal shells
all my bad habits lead to me:
pulverising my myopia to skyrocketry
by doomscrolling past midnight’s bedtime
uttering profanities to express mild disdain
at pitiful pixels, praying for gambler’s luck
a quota upon my sympathy for my delusional needs
and scrape up on deadlines when hours remain.
and then I vent and question
about the shambles I find myself in
whilst embedding knives into my flesh
the noose I threaded lovingly
round your neck of complacency.
the culminating nadir of the injustices
I have condemned against you.
let me ricochet your head off such
though you may be bruised and now
finally have a justifiable trauma
(finally, you have an excuse to be TRULY broken.
you weren’t before, just so you know.
as for me, that noose shall be mine alone.
a fitting end to a relationship i tried to force
I’m sorry, my beautiful lotus
for corrupting you beyond repair
time to dye myself into pyrrhic hues
and scream into the sun’s glare
a comet whose wings have faded in jaded retribution.
I was supposed to be your xavier.
the light-bringer, now eclipsed
but I suppose i would be your demise
if I don’t hang up my sufferings.
maybe I would be the scarecrow
a gleaming foreboding of love dialled to obsession.