Love Poem: Numb
Graciela Gil Avatar
Written by: Graciela Gil

Numb

I first met with Arthur, on a Tuesday. We were in Kindergarten. It wasn't the most auspicious of meetings. I made him cry after I told him his ears were bigger than an elephants. But I mean, honestly, his ears were really huge. We didn't like each other very much after that. 
I became friends with Arthur on a Tuesday. We were in 2nd grade and at Pansy Harrison's birthday party. Neither of us particularly liked Pansy. I mean honestly, no one liked Pansy. As we sat in the corner and spit it our hands and shook them, well we knew this was forever. 
I fell in love with Arthur, on a Tuesday. We were in 9th grade and we were running home from from school, and it was raining. As tear-shaped water droplets clung to his eyelashes. He wasn't the movie type of good looking but well, I thought perhaps he was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. 
I kissed Arthur, on a Tuesday. We had just graduated high school. It was all shaky hands and trembling lips. It was nothing like the movies, but it was perfect. 
I married Arthur, on a Tuesday. It was quite an awful day to be married, and Arthur stepped on my toes about 100 times and cried more than I did, but they played our song and his cheeks turned all rosy with merry. 
I lost Arthur, on a Monday. Honestly, the first thought running through my head was anger. How could he have not held on one more day? Then, I was empty. Because Arthur wasn't the other half of me, he was me. Sometimes I look in the mirror and wonder if we actually had become one. If our very own souls and minds were meshed together and now I was stuck walking with no right leg and only half of my brain. 
Is this what love was supposed to be? How I was supposed to feel? I didn't weep like the girls in the movies, I just felt numb.