Sequestered In The Friend Zone

Assessing the feats
after impact sets in
a frantic scramble
to reinvent
hearing those words
that place me in the "friend zone".

A spool rewinds
(cassette or VHS)
yanking the present
to past echoes
of that tragic stigma

Enthusiasm dashed
in the dismissal;
that quiet retreat
and penetrating awareness
that you don't feel the fire
to sleeve me
like you once did

That exchange
of the potential dance
laced in innuendo
and anticipation
no longer on the table

That flash
of detesting my inner kindness
cursing that tendency to worship
convinced that I did it right
when it went wrong

Some advise a stone reaction
will get better results,
so why must I keep digging within
if you say it's over?