No. 9 – The Letter

By Nandhini G. Natarajan

 

I saw the letter

you had written in secret,

night after night,

fueled by alcohol.

All the words I begged

to hear,

all the tenderness

I wanted.

Pages of it,

the outpouring.

Exactly the way

I remembered

thirty-three years ago.

I finally saw you again,

the one I thought

was lost.

And then

I saw the name.

It was not mine.

Someone else,

much younger.

How cliché.