He wrote a breakup letter

Blaming me for all his faults

An offering of pride

Patched together with the shame

He should have felt but couldn’t,

Because then he’d have no one

To sacrifice except himself.

The breakup letter contained a list

A litany of lies

That laid out every scarlet sin

I never committed

To place me publicly into a stance

Of digging myself out of a hole.

The wrath that accompanies

Witnessing injustice

Categorized as misbehavior

That damaged others as well as myself.

The letter’s blatant falsehoods

Drove me to the yard where I

Set a fire to the pages

And watched his carefully crafted words

Signed with ink by his own hand

That framed me as unrepentant sinner

Disappear

Destroyed by the cleansing fire

Of my agency

And my desire to not let him

Have the last word about me.

That breakup letter went up in flames

And when the ash blew across the stones

Of the garden where I keep my altar

I wondered if the phoenix feels as low as this

Before she hatches once more to start again.