June 2019
I live with my husband, our two cats, and too many books and CDs in a smallish house in the suburbs of Washington, DC. Many of those CDs are jazz, but not all are. We are also trying to live without a car (although Lyft helps us out in a pinch). Recently Pski's Porch published my book, On the Other Side of the Window. I am also the editor of The Song Is..., a blog-zine for poems and prose inspired by music. Please come visit my site! https://thesongis.blogspot.com
The Letter I Never Wrote You
Last night I dreamed we were
never really friends. Your spicy cologne
and cigarettes, the smell of antibacterial
soap, kept me at a distance.
I’d never see what you wrote
in fountain pen on yellow paper.
I’d never sit next to you,
never eat your Tulsa Trail Mix,
never get drunk with you on
spiked egg creams at your house,
never invite you to my room,
never even ride in your car,
the one you would soon total
going home to Durant, Oklahoma.
This time you offered to teach
me to drive stick shift. Laughing,
using your accent to charm me,
you would even offer a ride
out of this college town where
I am a fat moth pinned
under glass in the butterfly museum,
where I choke on small print
and fast food, where I’m alone.
But this time I knew you.
I knew all that would happen.
I said no.
"The Letter I Never Wrote You" was originally published in Firefly.
© 2019 Marianne Szlyk
© 2019 Marianne Szlyk
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