"Platonic"

By Amy Sexauer

You said you wanted to be my friend
Because I never finished an MRE
I was a virgin
And back then you kept count

You hooked up with my friends
And made me laugh
For the price of skittles
You taught me about innuendos
But I knew I was safe

Years later
At a chow hall overseas
There was pride in our eyes
As I told you all the ways I had grown up
And you had settled down

Me, learning to explore
A different side of men
While you,
Learned one woman
Longer than you had before

All for the price of skittles
A friend to mirror growth
A lesson in how
Some affections won’t change
Even when we do

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Amy Sexauer is a poet and author of Poppies, published by Dead Reckoning Collective, from which this poem was taken. She is a West Point graduate who spent nine years on active duty in Military Police and Psychological Operations units. She is currently a graduate student at Harvard University. Follow her here.