Clarity

Write it, in your ink
so those words–mine–
won’t find a home in me.

Let me down again
and again, I realized:
When I stopped depending on him
I stopped feeling angry when
he let me down again.

With the absence
of touch, you start to feel,
after too long,
that your skin will
crack, blown thin
by cold loneliness.

If only,
if only I had asked.

To look back
and say, yes, there it is,
where I turned
to the dead-end road.

Words grabbed me
tight
by my throat, tighter
eyes welled and
I gasped
the clarity of oxygen
when words release.