Marked

Published in the 2019 edition of Loyola University Maryland’s literary magazine, Corridors

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Marked

“Every time you meet someone 

it’s hard not to wonder 

who they’ve been—one story

breaking so much

into the next:”

-“Unmarked,” Tim Siebles

 

Suppose Tim and Natalie

found out 

that we had done it too—

had the ducks prelude

the hoodied reintroductions

that followed our first kiss.

 

hello.

 

In that moment I knew

I loved you yesterday—

and the me who came

before me, too—

long before I understood

what it meant to know

and be known. 

 

We marked every inch

of that rainy town,

rode our bicycles

into the sky and higher,

traded bus routes 

for dessert,

fetched groceries at midnight.

 

(These are the things

from atop castles 

that you cannot see.)

 

Would they think twice

to think it fraud?

Or perhaps a form of flattery,

they too reincarnations

of lovers past.