You were but I was by Michael T. Smith

Ike louie Natividad

You were but I was

(A sonnet-inspired poem)

The day was exhausted, as much were we. 

When you said those words, you said them with teeth.

looking within me, eyes minatory. 

I peered instead at your tone underneath.

Were I to charge, a fee placed on ego,

my throat, a prisoner, wouldn’t react: 

You aimed directly at my morillo

to stop those quite words right in their tracks.

The War of the Roses entered act two:

to make me cow to your vile rhetoric, 

all those castrating winds, to me, you blew

What am I? Selfish, immature, a dick?

Beside the lonely road, where no movement

Is allowed, ‘cept my heart invisible

Our car pavisanding, its wax lucent,

With a wheel stuck for greater principles

You said you were kidding – spoke in a buzz,

that I wasn’t that.  You were but I was. 

(Originally published in North of Oxford in 2018)

© Michael T. Smith

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Michael T. Smith

Michael T. Smith is an Associate Professor of English who teaches both writing and film courses. He has published roughly 300 pieces (poetry and prose) in over 100 different journals.  

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