This Poem Is Not About You: A Post-Break-Up Spell

Say your beloved’s name backwards three times.

Box up every love note, every gift. Seal the box with a double knot.

Smudge every room with wormwood, mugwort, and sage, and sprinkle coarse salt over all the windowsills and doorways.

Stay out all night dancing.

Take a new lover.

Post pictures of the two of you, smiling, all over Facebook.

When someone asks about your ex, look puzzled and say, who?

Cynthia Linville teaches in the English Department at California State University, Sacramento and is active in the local poetry scene. She is Managing Editor of Convergence: an online journal of poetry and art. Her book of collected poems, The Lost Thing (2012), is available from Cold River Press.