With one fell swoop you landed your knife
direct hit, perfect aim!
main artery pierced
unlocking a life
and out poured the rage
sour and raw
warm blood rushing over
words smeared marred and tainted
our one perfect flaw

with hate, so much hate!
it rose from within
blazing keyboard and innards
it sickened the skin
a dismantling of friendship
now where to begin

with three little lines
two writers at war
let rage be their beacon
unleashing the core
of hot molten word games
attacking each host
repeatedly bludgeoning
what mattered the most

today we lie panting
beached by the storm
that took us off course
sails tattered and torn
and now there’s forgiveness
spoken to air and to sea
the words only whispered
to the wounds inside me

the lessons hard-learned
are to think not attack
and read between lines
before answering back

“which ballpoint is up?”
“the rape changed you so?”
“a queue from your incompetence?”
where else could i go?

not quietly slinking
away from your jaws
friends’ knives remain sheathed
while sharpening claws
for strangers more worthy
of rapier maw

and so, its forgiveness
a poet’s remorse
another prankster’s lesson
while racing this course

i forgive you and only
to clear out the sick
darkness and putrid
of hate’s ugly trick

that led us to endings
of laughs and the words
and give us some reason
to avoid ‘steaming turds’

goodbye to the captain
i do wish you well
hope life’s stranger paths
lead away from the hell
that lives in our heads
the demons that jump
stay out of their playland
resist every bump
and write it all down
with the gift you possess
to the bone, to the marrow
i wish you the best