It Burned

by Rodolfo G. Ledesma 

      it burned
​a hole in a dark corner
deep in my mind

in that awful New York
minute when she turned
and coldly
walked away

her strides persuasive
in marking a fault line
I never
would have guessed

a suspicion eating
its way
to the surface

gone in seconds
as if she had seen
in my silence
the stillness
of something broken
​
gone like rain
disappearing in the sand
her forced smile
I realized too late
a hasty wave of goodbye.

---

Rodolfo G. Ledesma teaches economics at the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. Prior to that, he taught for a number of years in the US and Seoul, South Korea, where he won a Best Teacher award in 2010. He has a poem published in Compass Rose. He is also the author and illustrator of volumes one and two of the cartoon book A Dog’s Guide to Making It in America.