Revelations

I cleaned my room today.

The whole thing top to bottom

and I got rid of every last bit of You with it.

I kept every ticket stub since 2013

every movie

every concert.

We have to squint to see what movie is printed on the ticket

That weird paper stained with smudged ink and memories of who we were.

On the concerts

I can’t even find it in myself to be angry

It was simply the rawest, the purest of us.

How were we supposed to know how South it would go?

But it’s all purged now.

Everything from the past relatively worth keeping shoved in the back of the closet

Just Like I Used To Be.

Say a little thankful prayer for who we are now

To a god whose name you don’t know

Or believe in.

We are better now

Without you, and you, and you, and you, And You.

If someone saw my room they would have

little to infer about the monster that used to take over.

Except every birthday card I have

kept under my desk.

Cards from the dead and gone,

Too sentimental to discard.

Reading them makes me sad.

Empty words from empty people

Empty people who you thought would be 

So Much More.

I’m better off without her

As she certainly is without me.

I’m not upset anymore.

I threw out the detachable captain america shield she put 

on my sixteenth birthday card.

I’ve grown like an invasive species in the garden of my soul

And it’s really not that invasive anymore.

I hope you’re well.

I hope we never speak again.

About the Author

Lauren Amariti is a senior English major with a creative writing concentration with a knack for sewing tacky clothes that wouldn't look out of place in an early 1990's bowling alley. In the times when they're not writing angsty poetry like a knockoff Phoebe Bridgers, they enjoy writing fiction with particularly unhinged main characters.