Valentine’s Day

I’ve written so many love songs
For people who didn’t deserve them.
A girl who lived in Adelaide,
A boy who should have loved me more.
A girl who thought my love a burden,
A boy who hurt the things he loved.
A boy I found again too late
When there was too much damage done.

Gallons of spilled ink,
Callouses on the sides of fingers,
Forearm smudges from left-hand writing,
Pages and pages and pages and pages.
Notebooks, filled with all this love.
Laden lines I’d like to burn.
Light them up beneath the moon,
Fan the flames into a fury,
Watch them turn to smoky shadows,
Ghosts released to the pre-dawn air.