Peeling Red Letters — Summary

I enjoyed peeling your name, off of my white wall. I gave you all I had, you brought little if at all.

Your red letters lay in scraps, on my otherwise clean gray floor. Next I get to scoop you up, and throw you out the back door.

I know you didn’t mean it, I really just don’t care. I looks as if you just found out, you get what you give and that’s fair.

Show the whole poemHide the poem

Learn Poems app

Try the Learn Poems app

Everything from the website trainer, and more: new exercises, voice recording and sharing, reminders, quick review.

Here the speaker is cleaning up after a relationship that has ended. Someone's name, written in red letters, has been stuck on a white wall, and the speaker peels it off piece by piece. The scraps fall onto the floor, and the next job is to scoop them up and throw them out the back door. It's a small, physical chore, but it stands in for letting a person go.

The speaker sounds cold and a little satisfied. They say they "enjoyed" the peeling, they gave everything while the other person gave almost nothing, and they claim they "really just don't care." That last line may be protesting a bit too much, since someone who truly didn't care probably wouldn't describe the cleanup in such detail. The final lines turn into a blunt lesson: you get what you give, and that's fair. The mood is bitter, controlled, and quietly final, like a door being shut without slamming it.

Read also

More by Agent Aslan

All poems
InspiredAgent Aslan

Sea Tranquility

A captain with no ship, is what I’ve become. The past is the past, it can’t be undone.
RomanticAgent Aslan

Flowing Glances at Cafe Trieste’

I fell in love today all over again, with the girl next to me at Cafe Trieste’. Thick red eye lashes and a matching mane flowin’, my pulse has yet to slow and rest.
CheerfulAgent Aslan

Friend Whore

”Things will be fine” is their common line. To tell you to just go away. “Don’t touch what is mine or drink my good wine, and no, don’t ask to stay.”