The Chore

A chore

A routine task 

Synonymous with duty

With burden

With drudgery 

I was a chore

You said this with your actions

You said it with your words

A chore

A thing to be gotten through

An evening out with me needed to be labeled a chore lest you’d forget

Making love to me - a chore

A task you’d muster up a few moments of energy for a couple of times a week 

My body ached for touch, but it

Its suppleness… 

  its delicate nectar… 

Had become someone’s chore

Another task on the list they begrudgingly halfheartedly plowed through 

The task is done, I should be satisfied…

Satisfied… 

With being a checkbox on a list devoid of passion

Devoid of yearning

Drowning in my own longing 

I settled for being a chore

The chore 

The dutiful burden someone drudged through 

Your words and actions told me I shouldn’t complain 

I should be grateful 

Grateful for what exactly? 

Grateful for the way connection was always a breath away

Stifled as it began to emerge in the darkness of interviwned bodies

Grateful for being settled for instead of joyfully and passionately chosen

What exactly was I to be grateful for when the vows said yes 

But the reality

The reality said maybe, not quite

The reality said, why are you asking for so much 

So much of what? 

Of you?

Of us?

Silly me, I forgot, a chore does not make demands. 

A chore waits. 

In quiet corners. 

In silent rooms. 

In empty beds. 

The reality of going from a whore to a chore in the blink of an eye 

All because I said I do

The irony is suffocating 

To be coveted and then discarded 

Never enough but always too much 

A chore

A burden

Drudgery for the man incapable of rising to the occasion 

Would you have me wait forever?

Collecting dust like a prized antique upon a shelf

Longing to be valued

Yearning to be admired as more than a trinket

More than duty 

More than drudgery 

More than a chore.

Copyright(c) 2025 Rayven Holmes