How To Live With Your Unrequited Love

I would rather choose selective amnesia than a relentless chainsaw through my heart reminding me of how you'll never love me.

By

Jacob Meyer
Jacob Meyer
Jacob Meyer

It’s not that I don’t see the stars in your eyes
when you look at her
or the way your fingers ache
to write poetry on her skin
every time she’s around.
It’s just that
I would rather choose selective amnesia
than a relentless chainsaw through my heart
reminding me of how you’ll never love me.

I collect the smiles you give me
and keep them in the corners of my mind
like little treasures I can think of later
when the night is too long
the darkness all consuming
and my heartbreak is ringing like sirens
through my fire alarm heart.

I don’t ask too many questions about her
or dwell too much on the day
our friendship will disintegrate
at hands of my unrequited love.

Instead I focus on the way our shoulders
are touching as we sit next to each other
and how this slightest touch is like fire
spreading through my skin. Thought Catalog Logo Mark