Trick or Treat

You never know just what you are expecting
Until it is rejected or denied.
Knock on the door, and when it opens, hold
Up your bright orange plastic bag, and you
Will know, the moment something drops inside,
Whether it was the gift you really wanted
By how your heart swells up, or plummets down,
Or clenches like a baby’s hand that grabs
Too late at what was meant for other fists --
The elevator drop you feel when you
See someone that you didn’t know you liked
That much walk off with someone else instead
Of you. That’s when you know what you walked in
Expecting; that’s when you know you did
Want something –- when it goes to someone else.
And even though the target of your heart
Is ignorant of what you wanted or
Expected from her, she is still the one
You blame -– the one who should have read your mind,
The one who should have known by looking at you,
By all you did not say and never asked,
That you were sweet on her. So it’s her fault,
Not yours (it’s never yours) that she went off with
The man who asked her out, instead of you:
The one who stood there saying “Trick or treat,”
And left it up to her to guess which one
You really wanted.

Copyright 2008 Matthew J Wells