Throw-Away

I'll outgrow you like a shadow
Watch you dance around me
Like the truth
Sitting in your cardboard box
A thousand white lies in lace
Little girl dreams musty and folded
Perfect corners, eyelets, mercy
The flowers from my bouquet
Still hang here four years later
Cast a dusty glance in my direction
Through the dingy mirror

I fancy myself a liar but
The truth is that I'm tired
Of playing the same old games with you
So I'm not going where you go
I'll not follow anymore
Leave wedding cake crumbs in my wake
When I turn another corner
Burning candles on the hills
Of my new fate

The picture that we made on that
Perfect day in May sits in the
Top drawer in my childhood room
Stashed away with old mementos
Things I revisit when I vsit
Which, these days isn't often
But I come back on occasion to
Reclaim my indecision
Sometimes finding that, once lost,
A charm can be uncovered
Resurrected from the mess
Brought back to life

Maybe one day I'll find us there
Years from now, and pick us up
Open the frame and toss us away
With the stale ivory gown
No one would buy
Maybe bring us back to life
If only to analyze why
We got broken enough to end it
Desperate enough to try it
In the first place

In the end I think I'd buy it
Give love another chance,
Just not with you.

-GSS 2006