Sitting in a vc At 9am, We’re braining a storm While wracking our heads.
A lyric, A sonnet, A bunch of regrets; That string of words That’ll make them mesh.
You’ve got tidbits of concepts Such cruel irony, Attempting a poem while Sitting in a vc.
From transcribing to hyperbolizing, There’s options galore; Keep the similes in line, Take the routine thesaurus tour.
Sift phrases from the trash, Treasure is what you see, Crafting a poem while Sitting in a vc.
Toss it all on paper, Reel them from above; Catch the dreams you elucidate And gather them with love.
Then put it all together And an idea has come to be: You’ve now written a poem while Sitting in a vc.
I miss the days of easy intimacy When I could step out of class and right into an embrace, When lunchtimes could be spent with an easy arm over my shoulder, When free moments came with hair ruffles And cuddle puddles atop beanbags. Giggles in the air, shuffling to get comfortable, until The rest. I miss that tranquility of intimacy. When a hand would trace slow circles on my knee, When fingers would aimlessly twirl their way through my hair, When my head would rise and fall to the breathes on someone’s chest, When I could close my eyes And rest.
The pin dropped.
“HOW COULD YOU?!” Her arms flew in the air, slamming the door behind them as she took menacing steps toward him across the tiled floor.
“I didn’t know!” Hands held in surrender as he hid his face from her glare.
“How could you not know!” She seethed under her breath, suddenly remembering they weren’t the only ones in the building.
Her eyes held a fire he had only ever seen in the courtroom, right before she drove her opponent into the ground. He wasn’t keen on what they held in store for him.
“I thought you already told everyone…” he recalled their last conversation and came to the sudden realization…
”You made me THINK you told everyone! You LIED TO ME!” He cried, hurt that she hadn’t trusted him to know.
“I didn’t lie!” she interjected, shushing him under the fluorescent hanglights. “You misinterpreted my words.”
“And you didn’t correct me!”
She scoffed. “Because it’s none of your business.” Her eyes narrowed at his. “You blabbered to the WHOLE DEPARTMENT! And you wonder why I didn’t tell you the truth. You’re just a rookie sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong. You should go back to your desk. Or better yet, pack what little is on it and go home.” She sneered, dipping her words with malice. From the look on his face, she could tell she hit the mark. She smirked, though no amount of pain she inflicted on him would make up for the embarrassment he had caused her.
“I’m sorry okay?” He pleaded, looking genuinely remorseful. “But how was I supposed to know I was even keeping a secret if you wouldn’t tell me?!
“You’re supposed to know, you idiot!”
“IM SUPPOSED TO KNOW?!”
“YEAH BY USING YOUR FUCKING BRAIN!”
His face hardened as he met her head on for the first time. “You can blame me for many things, but I won’t be your scapegoat on this. And being an actual lawyer doesn’t mean you get to treat me like garbage! I clock more hours than you on any given day!“
“Doesn’t change the fact that you’re a paralegal,” she hissed.
“Yeah,” he concedes before glaring at her. “And you, a bitch.”
Slap!
What is there to say About us? Nothing,
Except for the days of shared earbuds and music and laughs In all those mornings, or even in class,
Or the time we ran together through the rain, You held my glasses in your sweater as I embraced the pain Of being blind Because I didn’t think that you’d ever leave me behind.
Or when you held me close and I wished you’d never let go Every one of my feelings being tossed to and fro.
Remember we watched the sun rise on the beach just the two of us on the shore? With only a box of Cheez-itz and a towel to share Your hair blowing out in the cool summer air. As we played tic-tac-toe in the warming sand. As we did everything but hold each other’s hand.
It’s those times I miss When we snuck glances between episodes of umbrella academy. As we laid in your bed And you cuddled close to me.
We never labeled it I never thought we’d have to But it’s those times I remember When I want to surrender Because you look at me now like I’m just a friend Like nothing happened Because technically It never did
So what’s there to say About us? Nothing
So I guess this is Farewell, my almost lover
If it’s what you say It must be true, So go on, feel free, Say all the things that you want to. I’ll just sit here, Eyes open but mouth sewn and zipped, Because god forbid I call you out on your shit.
If I utter a single word to refute, Press unmute, Dare to look you in the eye, I’m met with uproar— Or worse, dead silence. Like “fuck, they ruined the goddamn party again, Would’ve been fun if they’d stayed quiet.”
You didn’t notice the balloons wheezing out their air Long before I stepped into the room. You didn’t notice because you didn’t care, because you didn’t want to.
You didn’t notice
the conversation
turn double-edged,
Slicing through
each bubble of speech.
You didn’t notice
because it’s not your moral pledge,
You didn’t notice because
People agreed.
But just because it sounds like everyone’s laughing doesn’t mean the joke was funny. Just as saying “I love you” doesn’t mean that you love me.
I shouldn’t have to recount back the times you stepped the line, You should know, You should remember, Every time that you crossed mine.
And it hurts, it does And it’s such a shame, Because I respected you, Was it foolish I expected the same?
I am made entirely of flaws, Stitched together by good intentions. I come from a land with no laws, Different forms in all my reflections.
I traverse an invisible line, Between the morally right and wrongs. I dance, my feet in time, Bending to the death-marching songs.
You know me by many names, For I drop pseudonyms like plagues. Some call my work “games,” Because I like to keep the rules vague.
Simply know that if we’ve met, You’d know it well as your fingers. And if we haven’t yet, You will when your mortality lingers.
The city was cleaner than any I’d ever seen. From afar it’s shape unique to any I’d ever been,
With no tall spires or dark looming streets, Everything was bright, Colors rolling into one another like The blending of paint by a patient hand.
Each aspect was balanced, Smooth and and purposeful, With enough light to feel alive at night, But consequently see the stars.
The roads were unbusy, so they were made quite small, And the greenery was plentiful, Flowers growing up the walls.
No birds crashed into windows, No deer were overrun. The bees had their own habitat, So your home was never one.
And travel was made easy, A walkable city, as it’s called, Where everything is designed to be Accessible for all.
And so this was the city I stumbled upon one day, As I breathed in its fresh air, wonder overtaken by dismay
Because that where I had come from was lacking in countless ways; Where people begged on doorsteps because they had no place to stay, Where trash camped on sidewalks, Cuz no one took it away, And stars were a privaledge, Polluted by nightly fray.
So the environment I saw here was
Was a mockery to my gaze,
As my home wouldn’t improve in centuries,
Much less by my dying days.
Death is not lonely. The immortal being never sleeps, Never stops, Never breathes. Until Death met her.
Unlike Death, the young human was petrifyingly mortal, her life teetering on the edge. Sometimes she would visit, between the beats of her struggling heart, never knowing if this is the time she would stay.
It was like this that their friendship grew, With snippets of rumination and ponderings shared in the arrhythmiatic spaces. Both thankful for the other’s company, It distracted Death from the aimlessness of immortality while it distracted the girl from the powerlessness of her mortality.
But at the end of each visit they would abruptly be pulled apart.
The girl would be yanked back into her mortal life, Amid cries of her name and the beeping of a defibrillator and glaring fluorescent lights She would wake, Both glad to be alive… and sad to be alone.
Meanwhile Death was left to monotonous dispatches, guiding beings out of the living realm. Only now Death wouldn’t be doing it until the end of days. Death would be doing it until the little girl came again.
And both would look forward to visiting their friend again.
