Lock and key

If I got my way I’d lock away every memory of you.

For those memories that once brought me joy make me sick. 

You fed on my vulnerability, 

How was I so blind to think anything you said was real. 

But now it’s all too real, 

The memories, 

The lies, 

Everything I was once willing to put on the line. 

In the end the greatest gift you gave me was never coming back when I told you I was done. 

I never once crossed my boundaries,

You never once got your way. 

Yet as I sit in front of this box waiting to put the key in the lock my hands tremble, 

Wondering why in all these years I haven’t heard a word from you. 

Maybe you finally realized I knew my worth and no man could take that from me. 

Or was it that you knew on the inside you filled every void, 

You picked up all my broken pieces, 

puzzled them together and then let them shatter. 

In one quick sentence it was all over. 

So just like that I’m turning the key and locking the box. 

You’re no longer holding space in my head or heart. 

Goodbye to the boy that showed me what love could feel like.

12/14/2021