My engagement ring dozes
in a square blue satin box
worn a year then removed.
Tonight it’s open, ring gliding
across my fingers like her
missing hand.
I twist the jewel expecting emotions
but like high school yearbooks
it exists only for others to gawk at.
It weighs on my knuckles
a Stonehenge boulder
powerfully perplexing.
Throwing my ring into the street
I run it over with my car,
pick up a scuffed memento.
I tuck it under my pillow a lost tooth,
hope a supernatural fairy
will carry it away.
Next holding it over candle flame
I watch carbon fight with alumina
in front of fractured carbon.
I carry it around the house
loose on my finger
like my ideals of marriage.
I rest the ring inside my closet
next to childhood magic toys,
both existing as forgotten party tricks.
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Casey Aimer (he/him) holds master’s degrees in both poetry and publishing. He works for a non-profit publishing science research articles and is a founder of Radon Journal, an anarchist science fiction semiprozine. His poetry has been featured in Space and Time Magazine, Apparition Lit, Star*Line, Heartlines Spec, and many more. An SFPA and SFWA member, he has been nominated for both the Rhysling Award and Pushcart Prize, and can be found on Bluesky.
I think this poem is quite beautifully written! The picture it paints really tugs at me and I love the push and pull of breaking it, yet wanting to keep it around and it feels so powerfully symbolic!
Hi River, Thanks so much for the comment. I will pass this on to Casey.