Desert Reign

Desire like the rain in a drought

until you found your favorite lake

(It wasn’t me).

Your parched lips in summer heat,

crisp and tender to the touch-

flinching back sharply as I 

graze your skin.

Previously seeing the sun, moon and stars,

now, just dust on the lens-

smearing the beauty that once was, 

once could have been.

Just grease in an overcooked pan,

waiting to be tossed in a bin with the other

disregarded trash and shortcomings.

Not enough

(not ever enough)

to keep,

not useful enough to rekindle as new.

Throwing dirty laundry and scornful looks

in hallways past;

I’ve broken your ideal version of me.

Cracks in a mirror,

baffling even the prettiest of reflections

into something morbid and calloused.

I once was your queen,

marveled on by our kindred souls.

Now, I lay in exile manifesting with all my might

bare-minimums and recollections 

of someone you thought I was

and someone I was never going to be.