97 In Between

We parted ways at the center clock

With small embraces

And mumbled exchanges

Sauntering to our numbered platforms

Looking back for a moment

Reluctant yet relieved.

As I stepped onto my train

Whisked away back again

To a sleepy one horse town

I began to wonder

About all the things I didn't say:

Was he closer to his father

Or his mother?

Was he scared of being swallowed whole

In a school of 30,000

Or would he navigate gracefully

Through the crowds of people

Trying their best to make sense of it all

Just like him?
Even though he swears he’s not a messy eater

How many times a day

Does he stain his baby blue button down

With mint chocolate chip ice cream?

Does he watch them splash around

Darting his eyes from left to right

For the money

Or something

Deeper

And bigger

Than all of us?

Why finance?

Does it make his heart sing,

And would he ever consider Wall Street?

What goes on

In that beautiful mind 

As he sits quietly in a corner

With an empty beer can in hand

Waiting for someone to notice him?

Did he know he was the first time

I looked at novelty with eagerness;

Something other than spite?

And lastly,

Did he know

On the subway ride home

Back to 42^nd

Where I discovered

That the crook of his arm

Was a place I fit perfectly

That this was the last time?
Did he know it was the end

To something that had not yet begun

Or does he too,

Wonder

About all the things he didn't say?

Fallen Fountain Muse

Madrid, Spain

She stared blankly at the park's fountain in front of her, which held drunken lovers only the night before. She had scoffed and gawked at their animalistic love, perfectly captivated by each other's beauty, on display for the whole world to see. They pawed at each other, their faces illuminated by the gentle moonlight, desperate to be released from the damp grasps of the clothing that separated their souls. She wondered in bewilderment at how foolish they were being, and the ease at which they didn't seem to care at all.

 

She had always been the girl with the broken heart; the victim of lust mistaken for love. She retreated from everyone around her, faster than she could even comprehend, and shut her heart away in a box, shielding it from the world whose only intention seemed to be to hurt her, to deceive her, to break her. She had had enough: the stiches on her heart were fragile, the threads thinning with every twinge of hope, every bruise of defeat.

 

She stared blankly at the park's fountain and saw a glimpse of the life she wanted to live flash before her: a drunk lover, a prisoner of animalistic love, perfectly captivated by her lover's beauty, on display for the whole world to see. A foolish soul who didn't seem to care at all, desperate to feel the brilliance of his soul inside of her. The girl who finally found love amidst the lust, deceit, and heartbreak. The girl who belonged to him just as much as he belonged to her.