The end of the affair


poetry and i / we broke up last week
we just kinda grew apart
it wasn’t her / it wz me

well / ok just quietly / between me and you
it wz wild while it lasted
bt poetry / she got all single white female
for the last part there on me
it’s true

she wanted to be my everything
i wasn’t sure i still loved her like that
& needed some time to think
bt poetry / she said
i am not gonna buy that let’s have a break shit
poetry knew i wanted out
& started following me / everywhere
i couldn’t work / or leak / or eat or sleep
walk without her calling on me

you know poetry
at times / she can be so fucking needy

after we split/ i’d be out somewhere
& poetry wd just happen to turn up
she’d pull that fancy meeting you here crap
as if she hadn’t been hiding outside the house
to see where i went / all that time

i never thought it wd end like this /
i cd see poetry and i / old
in rocking chairs together
hands wrapped around steaming mugs
reminiscing about the good times

when we first met i wz always thinking
now poetry / she is beautiful
you know what i mean
i mean it wz like poetry
cd have anyone she wanted

& poetry chose me
(not/you understand/ tht I have low self esteem)

people were always saying
man / you & poetry
were just meant to be together
you are so lucky to have found each other

& poetry wd smile my way / as if to say
i will never leave you / maxine
we will be together always
you & me

& now
i am starting to get
just what that might mean

First published at slam up.

Maxine Beneba Clarke

Maxine Beneba Clarke is an Australian author and slam poet of Afro- Caribbean descent. Her short fiction collection Foreign Soil won the 2015 ABIA Award for Best Literary Fiction and the 2015 Indie Award for Best Debut Fiction, and was shortlisted for the Stella Prize. Her memoir, The Hate Race, her poetry collection Carrying the World, and her first children’s book, The Patchwork Bike, will be published by Hachette in late 2016.

More by Maxine Beneba Clarke ›

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