Sunday, February 21, 2021

A Man Like A Billboard

People like him

Because he’s like

A billboard


For the right price

You can put anything

On him

That you want


And I’d like to think
It wasn’t like that for me


With him

With him and me


That I liked him

Because of what I saw there

That nobody else did


But the truth is

There’s nothing there

That you don’t put there


The only thing

At the party

Is what you bring to it


I brought this long

Drawn-out explanation

Of why I was going to be

The one standing next to him

When all was said and done


And instead

He went out

And he met someone

Who’s even more

Of a blank void

Than he is


The two of them

They’re like two mirrors

Reflecting back

At each other


One feels something

And the other looks at it

Reflects it back

And it looks good


It looks like something

From somebody else


They go like that

They go back and forth

And they never run out of

Handing the same thing

Over to each other

And back again


I guess I…


I tell myself

I could have

Given him

Something new

To look at


But I don’t think

That’s what he wanted


I think when I put

Something up

On his billboard

He found out

That there was a price

Nobody could afford to pay


I looked at him

And I laid it

All out on the line

And I could see

That he tried

He…


He tried so hard

To adopt it


To believe in it

But…


But the problem is

Some things

Are too big

To fit on a billboard


Some things

Are too complex

And you can’t…


It’s not a canvas


It’s something you put

On the side of the road

So that when people drive by

Something sticks with them


I couldn’t stick with him


He forgot about me

As soon as I was

Out of sight


I should have

Kept it simple


More than simple

Unnecessary

Irrelevant

Bland


I should have been

As boring

As I could possibly be

And then maybe

He would have let me

Put up all sorts of things


And he would have

Sent them all back to me

And we could have gone on like that


We could have

Gone on like that

Forever

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