6/30: how to sever ties with a boxcutter

i am practicing with tears
tugging at the corner of my smile
like newborns testing their grip
a newly created art

'how to sever ties with a boxcutter'

there are lesson plans
tinged with frailty
left in the empty spaces
ringed with promises left like broken furniture

they bear the crust of insecurity
hold familiar fingerprints
from family members, lovers indifferent and insensitive
and other villains assorted by sodium content

i've found myself practicing
from time to time
to cut these tendons that tie me
to all these instances

because if i am to run
into a sun-strewn promise land
that i am crafting by grit, love and deeds
i have to cut precisely

and leave the hurt to sit cold on asphalt
like so many shells of sunflower seeds.