Because ‘Beautiful Girl’ only lasted long enough  
to finish a bag of crisps. Because your ponytail  
needed to be cut and corked in an empty bottle  
like a talisman. Because the train from Oxford  
to Shrewsbury had stopped running for the day.   

Because Phil Collins is for fools and old ladies.  
Because the ocean’s too wide a body of water  
for a commando to cross alone. Because gentlemen  
never kiss and tell, and soldiers never share  
their kill count. Because you teach the meaning  
of words like ‘amorous’ and ‘varnish’ and ‘leave.’  

Because I sold my Kings of Leon tickets  
for twenty quid. Because your mates can’t be right  
about everything. Because my questions keep you  
up at night, and you don’t know the smell 
of my perfume, or how my body moves or  
what it feels like behind you on a bike.   

Because chasing cars is dangerous, and it’s little  
wonder people get hurt when they collide. Because  
you went home after the pub instead of driving me  
to Peabody’s. Because doctors can cure your pain  
and crooked teeth but never make you smile.  

Because neither faith nor desire can close  
the distance between standing here  
and miles away. Because if trying to kill a snake 
is (as the poet says) vulgar and petty, so is  
breaking a promise . . . and wanting it kept.  

Marissa Glover lives in Florida, where she's busy dodging storms and swatting bugs. Her poetry collection Let Go of the Hands You Hold was released by Mercer University Press in 2021. Box Office Gospel was published by Mercer in 2023. You can follow her on Twitter at _MarissaGlover_.