ON ONE KNEE

New Paragraph

the first time a man proposed on one knee

I was sixteen

he was another ten

the second drove a Cadillac and had a thick neck

the third leered at my twenty year old legs through his thick lashes 

someone hit the bullseye past my twenty-second birthday

and now that I'm free it's happened again

Don't be a yes man my advisor says

Know thy enemy claims this wilted sprout who never smiles fully

I wonder about her teeth

the raggedy boots and at her attempts to style stringy hair

curdled skin

Milk and good trouble

that's what they'll tell you

unaware that there is no love like the one who's been left behind

cradling a specific space in time

holding crumbles the departed left behind

Run away says the sour form

as if there is a way out of this before our bones collapse

eyes depart

wayfaring across the seas to embrace him again