Throw-Away

An incomplete list of things I proved

I was willing to throw away for you:

1.  That worn-out shirt you hated.
2.  Watching the last Steelers game of the season
3.  A number of weak but vociferous opinions
On I-had-no-business-pretending-I-knew-about things.
4.  My four-point.

I suppose that sounds halfway romantic

But it's closer to making me sick.

Learned or inborn, the problem with guys

Is that we might compartmentalize.

So that I elected you First Teacher,

So that I elected you First Student,

So that we shared in living and learning,

But when I was feeling unfeeling, mechanical,

I did not stop producing, did not stop the lines running,

and you were at the end of the line, a receptacle.