Just Another Notch

When it was over
she gave him back the tangibles:
gifts - jewelry - his house key
and the key to the car she drove.

Ironically it was the intangibles
she would most like to give back
but couldn't ...
they were still as pure and vibrant
as last autumn's leaves.

She found a photo that morning
(the framed one of them dancing)
the one that used to be on his desk.

Eyes love-locked, they were
the only two people in the world then
(and one of the tangibles he had returned).
She thought she had disposed of it
with the rest of the memorabilia.

Well-meaning friends had warned her
the Internet was a dangerous place
but her ears were as closed to them
as her heart had been open to him.

Now as she lay in her bed
fighting back the intangibles
she found some solace
in the hope
that his carving of the notch
might have given him
some of the hurt she felt
in the realization

that she was merely a mistake he had made
one out of a long line of mistakes
and just another one of his notches.

Written by CJ Heck, Author of
Barking Spiders and Other Such Stuff
Click here to visit CJ Heck's Website