Expertise

I have already

ruined
our relationship
a dozen times,
preemptively,
internally,
and it has not even
yet begun

(perhaps this poem
will make sure it
doesn’t).

This is what I do best.

The drinking, the
smoking and filling up
my mouth with words I can’t say
I even care to say,
really.

Fold along the dotted line.

Step one is easy.
It’s the jump to page two
you have to look out for.

Your sentimentality and the
curvature of your nose
make you predisposed to
love.
I am predisposed to
something else altogether.