1
How do you kill a man?
You erase his name
With the pencil it was written
And close the book where it once rested
You scrape the dirt from under his fingernails
And keep it in a jar
On a wooden bedside table
Which you set ablaze
With used up cigarettes
You inhale, exhale
The smoke that gathers
And watch the flames
Burn away
The ashes
2
How do you kill a man?
You hide away the remains
His clothes that no longer cling
His cologne that no longer wafts
And while it still tightens around your throat
Your tears don’t fall anymore
Your breath doesn’t stop
People will meet your gaze again
For the face of death no longer hovers
He has seeped into the cracks of your walls
He swings from the chandelier
Watches you from the mirror
Clings to your shadow
For the world deems him faded
And you keep him alive
He doesn’t want to die
Not yet
3
How do you kill a man?
You throw away the letters he wrote you
Read them one last time
Stain the paper with your tears
In his honour
Before ripping them apart
You catch his whispers
Scrub away his fingerprints
Get rid of the taste he left in your mouth
By brushing
And flossing
Until your gums start bleeding
Blow his last breath into a bottle
Label it: the love of my temporary
4
How do you kill a man?
By pretending
He was never that man in the first place
No more than a boy
Rip him away from the clouds inside those caramel thoughts
Dip him inside ink
Speak ill
When you know you’re not supposed to
You must distance yourself
For he keeps digging
His fingernails into your insides
And no one thinks of it as odd
When you cough up his blood
To them it looks like flowers
To them
He is no more
5
How do you kill a man?
You carve his name under your tongue
And speak about worlds where he’s not present
Until it no longer pains you
6
How do you kill a man?
You kiss him
Over and over
Until he believes youre a lake
That only he may swim in
And that your saliva staining his lips
Will make him live forever
How do you kill a man?
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