Cliché Withdrawals

I've never had a reason to
believe in love, still
I buy line after line no less than
a prostitute I fit
every cliché of
hopeless romantic.

People tell me I'm lucky
my parents are one of the few
couples in a divorced world
but my mother told me
when I was just six
that they wouldn't be together
if they were childless.
Still I watch them wear Venetian masks
and dance to music
fit for a Shakespearean comedy.

Maybe the audience is
as gullible as my mother
who bought sugar pills,
claiming they cured her depression
and anxiety
and even helped her lose weight.
She asked a doctor about
them once, then discredited
him when he said "placebo"
forcing me to google
the pills instead
I told her they have no
side effects but
the next day
she said she stopped taking them
claiming they give
her a headache.

Maybe you were my placebo--
my sugar pill.
Making me thankful my one cliché
would never turn
into another because
I never liked cats and never
knew why lonely people
cuddled with creatures who
preferred to be
somewhere else.

You were my placebo,
telling me you love me
on the drunken night
where I took
off my stolen mask
for the first time
kissing me and promising
that I wasn't
a cliché

You were my sugar pill but
I turned you
into my cat.