You Were a Cliff

from which I fell—
through bedsheets of souls with hurricane-holding smiles,
landed on rocks at the bottom of lime-rim glasses.

If I could have pulled you along,
down to where I learned to find peace
in white-knuckle holds on bottlenecks and
judging strength of rapids and whirlpools,
you would have seen
how I romanced the jagged edges
of broken glass half-sunk in sand.

I once found thrill in falling,
but when you pushed me from your summit,
I learned how to wake up each day
like the bartenders always switched to juice by midnight.

Matthew Early is a poet from Columbus, Ohio. He holds a BA from Muskingum University, and is currently pursuing his MFA in creative writing at Butler University. He is the recipient of the 2018 Beulah Brooks Brown Award in Poetry. His work has also been featured on The Academy of American Poetsonline website, Poets.org. His work has been published in Echo, and First Circle, and he has placed in several collegiate literary competitions.