Potential Poem by Hari Msonda

I wondered long before
I named it broken.

My soul calls for you
you never answer.

We are a two-sided mirror:
reflection without reach.

In a Petri dish, I sit
specimen,
observed,
never evolving
the way you define growth.

You melt me
like a slug in acid:
slow,
deliberate,
almost beautiful in its ruin.

And I wonder
how much more of me
you could take.

What else could you hold
before I slip
liquid
through your fingers.

Name any place in my mind,
I would have drawn you a map
just to sleep,
just to breathe
without the weight of you
in every thought.

I wanted certainty.

But now,
I wonder about myself.

And in that wondering,
I release you.
Sweet,
terrible
wonder.