Letter to friend

I’ve wanted to not see you

For a while

Not because I feel like

either of us are

too much

But because in our

time together — I feel too

vulnerable. *Too* understood.

No lamp shades or dark

corners to hide in when

you ask If I actually* enjoy

this street or the drink.

I am paperthin and my posture is obvious.

I am a match when it is curled

and charred —

at my warmest and most breakable —

and always hope that I

am at my most obvious

when I say I *actually*

enjoy our time together.