How Long

How Long 

Dating random guys who don’t seem to care

Always chasing the next shiny object

Some rude like North Carolina

Speaking to me for seven months, meeting me

Then going back, ghosting me

A term I only recently learned

Turning me into a shade

The St. Louis doctor’s voice turns curt

When he says he can’t meet me in April

I’m kinder than these guys, I care

But my desperation to have a ring on my finger

Is driving me into eddies of anxiety and despair

How long do I have to circle

To find someone who says those three little words

I love you

And adds Forever

July 2023