Layal Oues
Executive Fiction Editor
I have no right to believe I thought of you out of love,
that it was not my own selfishness that consumed me;
because I never told you,
and I never intend to tell you.
Not of the bitterness I hold,
nor the love I believed it was,
swallowed forcefully.
I’ll keep it hidden away
in the body of my stomach
in shame.
In the acidic environment it belongs,
letting it reflux
until it erodes my esophagus,
and I can no longer swallow the thought.