Poetry: Trailineate – v. to deviate or go off course by Marisa Silva-Dunbar

Trailineate - v. to deviate or go off course  
                                     for C.B.W.

 I. 
Maybe if we had met
through poetry, we would've
shared Wednesday nights:
a potluck of prose, line breaks,
six-word-stories. Imagery a colorful 
garnish on  your glass of sparkling water,
a feast of words, prosciutto and brie.

You could’ve come for tea on Sunday,
and we’d slip secrets into each others 
palms. We’d plant snapdragons on the patch  
of earth along my back wall, watch as they’d 
bloom into a kaleidoscope and wither 
with the seasons. I could go to your place
curl up on your flocculent sapphire rug, 
as we lamented over lost loves. 

        		II. 
Before our first meeting,
they said “your lives are parallel
you’re meant to be friends.”
And though we both are witchy 
writers, former UK scholars, 
who find comfort in nights
with the Golden Girls, who liked
each other well enough, nothing ever grew. 
        
III.
We met through a chaos creator,
you’ve known her since she was a child.
You have affection for her flaws—

the way she needs to be the sun
in everyone else’s galaxy, not just 
her own. Her pattern of falling in
love within a two hour conversation.
You thought how she objectified everyone
was charming—something to giggle over
brunch or while braiding her hair.

        		IV.
I began to feel smothered by her constant 
need for attention—frustrated

with how she’d twirl away when I
tried to use my own voice—make her
understand I was my own entity. 

        		V.
You heard my stories secondhand 
from the innutured one, who never 
tried to see me. You were never going to. 
        
VI.

This is not a dirge, but a bouquet of what ifs.

Bio: Marisa Silva-Dunbar's work has been published in ArLiJo, Chanterelle's Notebook, Pink Plastic House, Sledgehammer Lit, Analogies & Allegories Literary Magazine. She has work forthcoming in The Bitchin' Kitsch. Her second chapbook, "When Goddesses Wake," was released in December, 2021 from Maverick Duck Press.  Her first full-length collection, "Allison," was recently published by Querencia Press.  You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @thesweetmaris. To check out more of her work go to www.marisasilvadunbar.com

Coming May 13th from Querencia Press: Marisa Silva-Dunbar “Allison”