The Don's Saving Grace (GxG)✔️

5

There are more people here than normal, I am getting quite nervous but Kash has his thumbs up.

"I decided to sing a little song for us tonight. Just a short something after a friend of mine mentioned that he has never heard me sing. Could you imagine the shock on my face?" The room erupts with laughter, Kash in the front eating a burger like always is. He has been bugging me to sing and I have been quite annoyed but he is persistent and naturally, I caved.

"Sing something soulful!" A man screams in the room.

"My friend already made a song request so I will let you decide if I am soulful enough with his choice." The room giggles. I could have been a comic. The band begins playing Baltimore by Nina Simone.

Live out in the country
Where the mountain's high
Never gonna come back here
'Til the day I die

Oh, Baltimore
Ain't it hard just to live?
Oh, Baltimore
Ain't it hard just to live?
Just to live

"Hopefully Nina Simone approves of that cover. Now back to the poetry you came here for."

"No! More singing!" The room demands. Kash looking sheepishly sweet as I am astounded by how well they liked my cover.

"I thought you came here for the poetry?" Many shake their heads. "I would not know what to sing next." Many say anything so that is what we will go with. "Bobby Womack If you think you are lonely now?" Many are confused as to who I am referring to.

"When it's cold outside who are you holding?
You know, if y'all don't mind I'd like to talk about this woman of mine
She's always complainin' 'bout me never bein' at home
But when I'm there I'm broke"

"I am going start with my poetry now, let me do what I am paid to do." Little chuckles here and there.

There is something about loving you
There is something about loving you
There is something about loving you
That unables' me from thinking straight.
Something about loving you inhibits me from leaving you, from walking out those doors and never peeping back.

It is not the dignity you lack
not the disrespect you spew
not the absence of interest you reveal
not the scarcity of affection you seem to think you hide well.

It's the wounds in me that just
dream you will get better
hope that it will get better
It will not if I am still here

So this is my Dear John letter.
Hope you see this on the fridge

"Thank you. Any questions?" Kash raises his hand.

"Why the change? Why turn it into a sonnet?" I swear Kash is the best. In this month that we have hung out, he has been extremely supportive. If having friends feels this freeing, I hope to make more like him.

"When things end we meet them with anger because we are hurt and so I just wanted to convey that hurt as well. After the anger melts from the heart all that stays is a cold puddle of sadness.

A few poems later I go off and Kash is waiting for me outside.

"Abiya, tomorrow is the team building activity, are you able to attend?" I have not seen or spoken to Amari in a month. She has been busy with everything else, I just let her have her space.

"Please tell me it is not the one like last year?" She lets out a chuckle. We all hated boot camp.

"No, I changed it, you in?" I have to go, she always asks politely so that we do not feel forced but we know it is a requirement. Her mother made it one, she keeps to tradition.

"When are you expecting us to start showing up?" She moves her pen to the click board.

"Around ten am will be good. Get home safe." She turns and walks to her office. It is not the first time she has told me to get home safely but it was the first time, I felt it coming from a place of emotion. She was gone as soon as she appeared.

I wanted to hang out with her again, she is quite the personality.

Kash has been taking the bus with me and walking me home after poetry night. It feels safer to have him there.

"I really recommend reading it. I thought you would have read it since it is a piece of literature." The 21:57 bus has never been more colourful.

"No. Just because something is praised does not mean it is worth my attention. I just do not like what the book speaks towards, I do not relate. I prefer my thriller and romance books. Did you ever read it?" I enjoyed my Thursdays a bit more and I looked at the world better since Kash as though he just shone a light on the darkness of my life.

"As part of college, yes. I enjoyed it, it made me feel like there was some world of adventure out in the world so I started painting and drawing." He adds into the conversation as though it is insignificant.

"I did not know you painted or drew? What are they about?" His face lights up.

"Well, they are more about pain, loss, suffering and finding happiness. I love drawing my brothers face when he gets something. Seeing my father in pain was stuck in my head so I drew it out. I love painting the city and its people." Intrigued. I would love to have a peek at his work. One look.

"Could I maybe see them?" He looks to the side.

"Sure. When you are free, I could bring you to see them." He dropped me off at my place and left.