The Worst Words

If I asked you while the sun

fell on our past, sinking beneath 

a brown and loathing sea,

what the worst words were.

You would perhaps shrug your

shoulders and look at your shoes.

I would say it’s not, ‘I don’t love you’.

It’s not even, ‘I hate you’.

I would say the worst words

when all is said and done, when

the tide retreats to reveal the sticks

and stones of our life are, ‘I don’t care’.

And you’d tighten your laces and walk away.