You told me you were allergic
to honey
It didn’t give you a rash
Or anything
but you disliked it enough to tell me
More than once
I thought you had a bad experience
with a bee in your past
(Bees are bitches)
so I believed you
But then
at the train station
3 months later
I saw you eating honey
out of a jar
engraved with
your name on it
When I asked you what happened
you stared at me blankly
then down
and away
and just blinked
as I heard more jars
clanking
in your pocket
like a jailer’s keys
I turned in confusion
as you kept
Eating
I forget what happened
after that
I tried to walk away
But every step I took I was stuck
by the viscous quicksand
you let spill all over the floor
When I got on the train
only backward seats were left
to take me into the future
with eyes that couldn’t see
anything but where i had been
in the past
I tried to distract myself
by looking out the window
and counting how many telephone poles
we passed
It wasn’t many but it felt like more.
But the ants that followed the honey
slowly bit me
to remind me of how they got there
to begin with
to honey
It didn’t give you a rash
Or anything
but you disliked it enough to tell me
More than once
I thought you had a bad experience
with a bee in your past
(Bees are bitches)
so I believed you
But then
at the train station
3 months later
I saw you eating honey
out of a jar
engraved with
your name on it
When I asked you what happened
you stared at me blankly
then down
and away
and just blinked
as I heard more jars
clanking
in your pocket
like a jailer’s keys
I turned in confusion
as you kept
Eating
I forget what happened
after that
I tried to walk away
But every step I took I was stuck
by the viscous quicksand
you let spill all over the floor
When I got on the train
only backward seats were left
to take me into the future
with eyes that couldn’t see
anything but where i had been
in the past
I tried to distract myself
by looking out the window
and counting how many telephone poles
we passed
It wasn’t many but it felt like more.
But the ants that followed the honey
slowly bit me
to remind me of how they got there
to begin with
