• Stare at me.
    That's all it did.
    It was a face that I'd forgotten long ago.
    A cheerful, youthful face.
    Now it seemed battered and bruised,
    And I could see my fist.
    And I could hear myself yelling.
    "You're useless, you're useless."
    And the face smiled at me.
    "I love you. I do."
    She wasn't trying to convince herself.
    I would've been able to hear that if she was.
    She meant it.
    And then I could remember myself speaking again.
    "I hate you, I hate you."
    "I know that and I love you."
    I didn't say anything now.
    But I did then.
    But I hated what I had said.
    I looked at her harder.
    She was sitting in the middle of a pile of broken glass.
    Finally, I, not my voice, but I, spoke now.
    "I want you."
    I lifted her out of the glass and took her home.
    I had to.
    It was my face that I saw.