melancholy

A POEM ABOUT BREAKING UP WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND

Digital painting by Anna Sudit

 

This is not a love poem.

 

This is an apology for all the break-ups

it took for us to realize

we weren’t meant for each other.

 

I was a trainwreck waiting to happen

and she was something more immaculate,

like stars in the night.

The first you would turn away from,

the second you would always look at.

 

This is not a love poem.

 

We were just two halves of a smile,

one that could never quite reach the eyes because

we were at our best when the other was miserable;

when she would break bread only when God had forsaken her,

when I would pray only when no-one believed in myself.

 

Yes, I was always on my knees,

needing her more than she did me that I sang when I could stand!

But she always breaks the sky to cry for her,

and she always leaves when it does –

 

So here I am, mid-song.

 

This is not a love poem.

 

This is practice for no longer crying

over the people who don’t want to stay.

It’s about the ties that died because of pride

and how I’m sorry but I won’t say sorry.

 

This is not a love poem because

the greatest love stories are not about romance.

 

Sometimes, the break-ups that hurt the most

are the ones shared between friends.

Sade Andria Zabala is a twenty-four year old Filipina surfer sometimes living in Denmark. She is the author of poetry books War Songs and Coffee and Cigarettes. Her work has appeared on places such as Literary Orphans, The Thought Catalog, The Rising Phoenix Review, Hooligan Magazine, Germ Magazine, and more. In her spare time she likes to eat words and drink sunlight.

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