When I look back on all the poems I wrote about you
– some of them even good –
I have to say
and I cannot repeat this enough
I am very very
very very very
very very very very
VERY sorry
that I spent so much time
circling your orbit
wasting your time
with my obvious desperate attention.

As I read this tome of text I devoted

to your eyes
your thighs
and everything in-between
(and also toes and nose.
I was nothing if not a completest)
I see how sad I was
in such a recent past,
so deliberately dedicated

to a cause that couldn’t last.

Thank you for being so patient with me.
You didn’t have to be so nice.

I clearly loved you anyway
but I appreciate the kindness you expressed
to a kid
who didn’t know what to do
with himself

or with you
when I was so young
all the way back

a month or two.