One Year

A Poem

Photo by Alexandr Popadin on Unsplash

after Kristin Dwyer’s “Some Mistakes Were Made”

a year is not a long time,
it passes as a prayer;
when they deign to carry on
they come even faster, swear.

a year is not a long time
to heal the wounds we slit
into our calloused hides,
our skin can barely knit.

a year is not a long time
to form a proper scar,
the wounds’ll swell, as tender
as a bleeding, burning star.

a year is not a long time
for forgetting, to forgive;
to find the fucking plasters,
to pull the aching shiv.

a year is not a long time
for loving or to lose,
but then they stack together,
and you can never choose.

a year is not a long time,
but ten will come and go
and before you even know it
you’re drowning in time’s flow.