Swallowing a mouth

A friend and their Other

had a mature breakup

so as to make her a Friend

though not mine,

which he told me

he was very happy with

while he kept checking his phone

and finding again and again

a truth written

in a language he did not understand,

like if he tried to explain to me

how a cellphone works

or how something is probably wrong with the receiver

or what transpired between them,

that all breakups

involve tearing

and destroying

and a complete regurgitation

of another

for another

if you’re lucky

to break up

and still remain full.

*

She kissed another

like she kissed me

and I kissed her

like another

I didn’t know anymore

*

I’m all out of poetry

but poetry is not all out of me –

it beats me like

a bully for money

when I’m all spent

on cheap booze and girls

who don’t ask to be paid

but instead try to

swallow me whole

but boy,

do I give a mouthful.

Just ask the bully’s fist

who pounded

this poem into me

because I can’t;

I’m swollen