I walk past the same corner each day
where I would sit between classes
and talk to you, where the skateboarder
nearly collided
into me
as you spoke of your old friend
who was dying of cancer
but wouldn’t stop smoking
and I complained of my anemia
how I barely had the energy
to stand in front of a class
for thirty minutes

And all the time I was wondering
how much longer
we could keep it going
because this was a thing
we had been doing for twenty years
without ever agreeing to
or addressing it because
that might entail giving it up

When does a person become
more than a person?

Is it a burden or a gift–
how I know you know
I will become weary under a glass
after so many years?

But the person I’m speaking to
(when it’s you in my head)
isn’t you
and the person
you can never relinquish
isn’t me

And at what point does that no longer make a difference?

– Kristen Jackson