Forget-Me-Not

I see the way you avoid my gaze

And when I catch you I detect the guilt

That floods your eyes.

I notice how you no longer utter my name

It is as if the four letters taste so bad on your tongue.

Is my presence so unbearable?

Is the single thought of me alone so contempt-full?

Why must you try so hard to forget me?

When all I used to breathe in was you.

Why is it that every person in a room gets to feel your presence but me?

Must you try so hard to pretend I’m not there?

What goes on in that brain of yours?

Would it hurt me to know?

So you’re trying so hard to forget me now?

But your conscious still draws itself to my name when spoken and my presence is still made known to you.

And when the air between us becomes thick, you walk past me as if I wasn’t even there in hopes you’ll be able to forget the way you once acted around me, in hopes you’ll forget me.