The first time I ever heard
The hum of your saxophone
Blown by soft, dark lips
I realized
That though many falsities
Continuously click through my teeth
One that I can’t dare utter
Is that I do not love you

Throughout the year I’ve known you
I’ve seen your inevitable demise
Hazed eyes hidden by the black tangles of your hair
Blossom into a beauty
Unfit for my own
I once considered so clear
Now riddled with the lines
I so painstakingly carved
In order to retain the memory of your existence

Because at least I know
That our goodbye
Is foreshadowed by a heavy black night
There will be no
Nostalgic sigh
As we embrace for the last time
Thought it appears that way now

And when we sneak glances
Beneath the grasp of your girlfriend
Our eyes may be full
Of the warmest summer
Ever to kiss this God-forsaken town
It won’t always be this way

So let’s suck down the lies
While we can
Let me keep choking
On the hope that maybe I’ll be Cossette
And that, of course,
I’m not pretending
I feel nothing
When I am near year
That my body doesn’t
Moan with the pain
Of wanting you

No, our smiles are restricted
To tight lips held carefully
Over a slate of shaking teeth
Yours shaking
For the taste of her
Mine shaking
With the taste of this poem
And eventually
The bonds will break
That holds my tongue tightly
In the back of my throat
And that’s when even you
Will realize
That it won’t always be this way