bedsheets

A Poem by Tyler Sharp

Short poem about unrequited love

Your lips brush linen as you lay beside me. Too drunk to form a coherent sentence. Too high to care in the first place. I’m taking advantage of you and I know it. But if the only time I get to spend with you is this, then so be it. You are face down and I roll you over so you can breathe. “Thank you”, you mutter as you roll onto your back, I begin stroking your cheek, “you’re a great friend”. And there it is. Never anything more. Nothing but a friend. I wrench my hand away as if I have touched a scalding kettle. I start to get up and head for the door. “Yeah”, I say. You don’t respond. Tangled in the bed sheets you try to get up but can’t, caught in the cotton, you sink back down; you have given up, and so have I.

-01:06 AM