| Demolition |

Sometimes I think about what we abandoned and

I use to tell myself maybe the timing was off

even though we both knew that you had sealed

your future in a suitcase when you’re married to

work with ticket in your pocket to start again

June became a ticking time bomb and all

I could hear was the countdown in my head

I’ve never disarmed a bomb before so

fear got the best of me and I chose my sanity

over the stress because while I dream of love

I yearn for peace in this cruel world and I

had just hoped that you could have been both

now the dust has settled and I’m learning to turn

the smoke into sage and learn more about

which wire I could have cut instead of playing

my part in destroying something that was

beautiful because we were the architects

I still remind myself the foundation had already

begun to crumble when you chose to leave first

so maybe next time the ticking won’t seem so loud

because I’ve learned I can take my time to truly

understand how to defuse what I thought was a threat

instead of seeing an opportunity to keep building but

in the end I’m left with the fact we both decided to

discard the blueprints and let our sanctuary fall into ruin

Whitney Salgado