The Garbage of You

Today is my birthday and I’m singing the birthday blues

I opened my email and got notice from you

That we are through – that’s all I got from your miserly soul

Guess it saves you some money to bypass a gift

But the only legacy that I have ever wanted from you

was the love you withheld, tied up neatly in a bundle

holding your lifeblood cushioned in bubble wrap.

I can grasp that your largess is being saved

for someone else but what can she give that I cannot?

Nothing but novelty which you will soon outgrow

so I baked my own cake with candles and chocolate frosting

Wept at the memories I would not ever have with you

and threw it along with our treasured photos into the trash

where it would reside until I got rid of the garbage of you.