RSVP

There will be no chair left empty.

No name plate made in false optimism.

Though the victim mindset I suppress

thought it might make people sympathetic

if they see those telltale names

matching the name I bore

but choose

to excise like a tumor.

(But we don’t let that part run the show.)

.

“We are already booked to do something that we can’t get our $ back for.”

.

Thank you for giving me permission

to cut away the pretense of normalcy.

I won’t thank you

for making me explain to the new family

I found in this cold world

(who embraces me anyway)

that you could not be bothered

to accept my olive branch.

.

Surgeon of my heart,

arborist of my life.

Either way

the task is done

with a knife.