I wanted to write you
a valentine,
Valentine,
now that it’s now longer
Valentines,
now that you’re no longer
my valentine.

I’m sending you
a card,

along with chocolates,

to balance
your bitterness,

like the ones
you never sent.

If you were now
my valentine
I’d eat you
like chocolates,

I’d suck,
seduce
and swallow you
in seconds

to forget you.

If you were still
my valentine
I’d press you,
perfectly,
like a petal
between the pages
of a book,

of a book
I never open
and then wait for you

to perish.

If you were now
my valentine
I’d do my best
to banish you

just as I vanished
from your vision,

just as you left me

famished
for affection.

All Words and Photographs by Damien B. Donnelly