OLD BOYFRIENDS ON FACEBOOK
by Bryan Borland
I don’t send them friend requests,
these boys, now men, who lit
me up like bonfires
in celebrations of my younger days.
Today, they are form-fitting suits
with feet propped up
on corner-office desks,
Blackwater mercenaries
with shaky aim pulling triggers,
traveling salesmen talking fast,
pulling bait and switch. They are
on the border of Iraq and Iran
playing chicken with natives.
They are home in seventeen days,
married last October,
missing a body part I remember well.
They are smiling in photographs
with people I don’t recognize
who don’t write poetry,
who aren’t as beautiful
as me.
© Bryan Borland
First draft, just toying with the idea.
Hey Bryan,
This one gave me a chuckle. It sounds like you’ve certainly “made it” in your own right.
Best,
CH
It never would have worked anyway
Blackwater. Really? Ugh.
boooyah! I like it, Bryan. Doling out smiles still. Very enjoyable.
Thanks Vic! Glad you found a smile here. A poetic grin, so to speak.
I like the text a lot, well written. It is really gay (well you sometimes have that inclination) and a very strong and iteresting ending.
Thamks a lot Bryan be well.
Well, I’m really gay.
Thank you for noticing. 
Love it. I’d end on the word poetry
with two snaps up!!
I’m going to try different endings. I think there’s a few different ways I can go with this one. I like playing with images and using Facebook to feed me those images. I didn’t come up with any of the “what they’re doing now” on my own – those come from status updates. Which I think is kinda cool.
i agree, it reads well, and the message for me is clear.
i like the run of it till the end that makes it all stronger.
you put in a very quick poem a life time (s) and their development as well as your own growth.
Thanks! Love what you’ve said here about the life time(s) – that’s definitely what I was going for.
‘missing a body part I remember well’
How come the saddest lines of yours are often also the funniest? Me = awe.
Thanks QL! That line is a favorite. Not sure what the hell I’m talking about. That’s how I like it!
It is woeful bitterness that this poem reminds me of…the ones who would deny your existence.
I appreciate the time it took you to come up with the proper words for this comment, M’Lady. Spoken like a true ghost (aren’t we all?).
Cryptic statement. Please explain ghost comment.
Spoken like someone who has been forgotten (Haven’t we all).
Brilliant.
[...] 3 comments Once in a tempered moon I type their names but the searches return no results. Only three of them are missing. I look on milk cartons and vodka bottles, rouse myself from muddled dreams expecting a somber [...]
Some really great lines. Thank you.
I’ve just started back on writing poetry, as attempts at academia burned out my writing glands. Very glad to stumble upon your work, and will be stumbling back through it at my leisure.
This one raised a eyebrow as I have at least four exes on Facebook…