Daniel Elias Bliss

As Easy to Leave as Anywhere

As you steal a maraschino
out of my Old Fashioned 
I think about telling you
how the cut of the ice
reminds me of a hotel bar
3,900 miles from here
but I worry
how those stories sound.
The decade’s been a blur
of skylines, I’ve lost
where to say I’m from. 
I wonder what pieces
I gave those cities.
Why I’m spending
nights waiting
on my phone
to burst to life
with the flash
of a call from anyone
asking me to come back.
When I could stay in this dive
as good as anywhere
I’ve stumbled into,
with someone
as good as anyone
I’ve ever met.
While the stem
falls back into
the empty glass
I’d love to tell you
everything, but
I’m terrified
to end up
missing you.

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Daniel Elias Bliss holds an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan and is a PhD Candidate at Oklahoma State University. His poems have been published in the Berlin Literary Review, The Brussels Review Pinhole Poetry, After Hours Press, among others.