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Don't Be Difficult


by Jowell Tan


i find myself revisiting you
like an errant houseguest who refuses to leave
and makes a mess of everything

leave! and all will be as it was before
we will have known each other less closely
and it wouldn't be as hard to remove you from memory

but instead you are occasionally front and center
you make things awkward, make silences unbearable
your absences fill up the room much more than your appearances

shall i resign myself to such a fate?
where sleeplessness pops up between my restful nights
shall i tell myself “there's no doing anything about it”
and maybe one day it'll solve itself?

maybe eventually time
will erase our time together
and you'll be not much more
than just someone that i used to know
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