Lexie Woodall — Just a Joke
you never quite figured it out,
did you?
how to toe the line
between comedy and cruelty.
how could I have known?
how to conceal that
underlying spite, to
keep it from bleeding
from your lips, spurred
by the howls of humor
at my ignorant expense.
how should I have responded?
how to bring that
all-consuming,
insomnia-inducing,
jealousy to the surface
where it could breathe
and heal and speak
instead of burying
it, deep, within
insults disguised
as innocent jests and quips.
but you never learned.
you were just cruel.
and I just laughed—
a sound of pain
you couldn’t recognize,
even as it mirrored
your own.