I’ve noticed two crucial things

between these birthdays

And this education:

DEGREES.

my eighth grade science teacher

told me that water freezes at 32°

so as one who has had 42 birthdays

TWO DEGREES

and is a water sign

It is easy for this heart of mine

to become icy.

to push you away

when you do things

that I know will

ruin my day.

when I see that

you have nothing

on your mind

but time

And choose to

waste mine?

There’s no reason for us to converse.

There’s no reason

for you to be in my universe.

I have almost 50 rotations

around God’s sun

and I have no reason

to waste another one

on someone else’s son

who does not know

what he wants —

or believes that he can keep me

in a frozen position

while he figures out.

Where is hot and heat

and where he can go

Gather more sympathy from.

I refuse to be chilled.

Water freezes

when you neglect it.

when you don’t feed it.

when there is no water

and no oxygen to

keep pace with it.

It will go back to its original state.

Unfazed.

and yet—

What can the poet do

When her heart is frozen

except fight for it to be

Flesh again,

To be won again,

To remember that love

Still is—

And may always be.

Even if not with me.

-JBHarris, 4.19.2024