all the pin-ups looked like you that night
all the girls looked just like you
I needed time, or space to breathe
but all the women looked just like you

I felt the night reopen that wound
all I wanted was something real
but that air cut me a little deeper
and scars can't form 'til you heal

and all the pin-ups looked like you that night
all the women looked just like you

and I couldn't turn to a stranger
without her slice tasting like you
so sweet, so sour, so delicious
but a sore every time I do

and all the pin-ups looked like you that night
all the girls looked just like you

like you, like you

and if only those ricochets had really been
some vestige of what you offered free
(or what I thought you did, anyway)
I could have had someone to please

when all the pin-ups looked like you that night
but I wanted anyone true

and all the pin-ups looked like you that night
all the women looked just like you

now it's only the echoes of voices
a kaleidoscope of eyes and hair
mirrors and shadows, you getting dressed
or worse, you undressing in there

and all the pin-ups looked like you that night
all the women there looked like you

except up closer, they lacked your charms
they lacked your bitter cursed half
your smile, your smell, your legs your arms,
they didn't have your mocking laugh

and all the pin-ups looked like you that night
but the women there looked kinda real

and all the pin-ups looked like you that night
and scars can't form 'til you heal

3/28/23