pauper

Pain would have been good

Or anger

Even contempt

I wouldn’t have grudged you

Any emotion

That you

Stirred in me

But when I looked across the table

At you

I saw a stranger

Who was such a pauper

Could not even

Invoke curiosity

In me

like

Those desert iguanas

Two unblinking eyes

From the sheath of sand

You are a lost cause

A more

Decrepit soul

Not even in cavernous hell

Thank god I didn’t

Let you drag me there