Sorry I Haven't Texted You Back

by Alicia Cook

We’ve confused passion and pain, turned each other into liars. We have become colliding trains; no survivors, no survivors.

There are layers to loving me and most of them aren’t pretty.

So the story always goes, I’m your soulmate or your foe, writer’s blocked or on a roll.

I would have missed out on the person I became since knowing you.

So overwhelmed by what I need to do that my to-do list goes untouched.

I have scrapes on these knees from praying too hard, and scrapes on my heart from staying too long.

I’m only human, lying to myself saying I’m all right.

There’s stability in the aftermath of instability. There’s beauty in hard transitions.

Sparks did not fly when you met me, those were warning flares, d i s t r e s s signals.