Promises Poem by Morgan Copeland

He claimed once
Just once,
To exist for her.
A whisper of a wisp of smoke on his lips
He leaned in close to mutter
Beneath the insecurities,
And she swore that he would stay.

Stay was a beggar's word.
A word like a broken toy
Given to broken children who had never seen any better.
Life was a test.
She had all the right answers but none of the time
He kisses her slow when she cries at night.
A story untold is not a story at all

But a bitter loss that curls up and dies
And she wonders what it will take to feel whole inside
She looks deep to the bottom of a myth she's never believed.
Apologies taste a lot like goodbyes.
And goodbyes tasted a lot like a high
A rollercoaster of tension she couldn't get off of.

Because when she couldn't stand his voice:
She craved his touch.
Craved the savagery that she created within him
She would watch as he held back what she had given
And when the regret built his new rigidity
She ran her hands over the skin of his chest and whispered
Stay.

He never promised that he would
But every time,
She knew that he would anyway.