Helen "HP" Rivers

I should have left
the day you screamed
“Fuck you” at me.
Instead, that night,
when you knew you fucked up,
puppy-dog eyes betraying
the uncomfortable truth –
you needed my help –
I lovingly drained
the infected recurring cyst
nestled at the base of your taint,
declined your platitudes of thanks,
your empty apologies –
because I will always be
someone who cares to tend
to others’ suffering –
and you will always be
an infected ass pimple
who screams “fuck you”
at others and still expects
them to tend to yours.