Cold Kiss, Goodbye │ Njikonye Charles │ Poetry

I was hauled in,
in an unjust slate to pack up
the unguided flotsam of our broken trust.
I guided the laying fervor till it
turned my skin.
I kissed it daily, the sun peak,
with the side of my dying lips.
Though it’s gored,
I never howled nor teared.

We always,
were never always, twisted
in love with each other’s reflections.
You said a ‘Bari’,
And I, a ‘Tari’.
I see we don’t match
and can’t take a hiatus to notice and align.
Isn’t it that unlike attracts, and
likes repel, like a magnet does?

The bottles are getting knocked over and never returned in place, in peace.
Lips are getting scorched,
tasting and hungering for
swift, a cold death.
The lies we’ve traded,
are the very paths we trail.
Time tells, will always.

Wind down the clicking clock
Throw an imaginary,
seeming-hardcopy thought
back to the crossing of our names
on our now tattooed wrist.
We’d have said a ‘no’ and ended
this present charade.

I say, “you’ve cost me time.”
You say, “you’ve cost me life.”
Time is life, my dear.
We both lost this game.
Still, I can’t say it is a draw,
pending I’ll need you more
than you, me.