Aurora Poetry

Est. 2018

Although They’re Sure He Didn’t Mean It That Way

by Debra Bruce

 

Wrong words tossed
in a mood of confetti—
        made the air feel dirty,
        laugh of ash as friend
        backed off

        from friend and flicked
        away scraps of what he said
(what they did not, they would never).

        And when it opened
        in the room, the chasm,
                                and he
whom moments ago they would have claimed as their own—

they were careful not to step
        where he went in.

  
 

 

Debra Bruce is the author of four poetry collections, including Survivor’s Picnic (Word Press, 2012). Her work appears in such venues as Poetry, The Atlantic, and Kenyon Review. Originally from Albany, New York, Debra lives in Chicago where she is a professor emeritus at Northeastern Illinois University.