you can look over my shoulder if you want to
maybe you can’t tell but
this is a formal letter of adieu-et-cetera and it’s for you
take note of the stationary it took me so long to pick
it says genuinely, platonically that
it’s not like the birthday card I bought you and signed
so that no one would suspect
and it’s not like the birthday card you never bought me
so that no one would notice
that you looked at my profile illuminated in the slanted sun
through the windows in the history classroom
that I always watched you tie your laces and adjust your tie
muscles moving underneath Egyptian cotton or something
that you knew I never wear silver
that I picked your goddamn shirts for you
etcetera etcetera but what I really mean to say is that
look I’m through and there’s only one last thing
I mean just
would you just
just please
stop giving me that angry marble statue look of yours
every time I open my mouth because
your chiselled shoulder from that angle is just
I mean it’s just
please just
leave my lungs intact from now on because
I kind of really need them
for my wanting some other boy