I used to play intramural soccer
I’d score one goal per season
but during one particular game
a guy on the other team stomped on my big toe.
The pain was sharp, I knew the nail was going to come off.
When I took off my shoe
my sock was red, wet with blood.
It took a few days for the nail to die
the nail bed tissue, black and bruised
but over that period of time
I learned how something
that seemed so essential
can suddenly become
no longer part of my life.
The Saturday night before finals week
some new girl tried talking to me at a party.
Technically, I was still in a relationship, but that connection was slowly dying
there was an otherness to it, a blackness like gangrene
and over a period of time
I will learn how someone
that seemed so essential
can suddenly become
no longer part of my life.
