poetry by jungenwunder

the things you can't stop from happening

tw: falling, shock, death

~inspired by Old Friend by Mitski, which probably won't make sense if you don't know my motivation behind writing this poem, anyways go listen to it~

written on: august 14, 2022

*

we've known each other our whole lives because she lived down the street

and we were the only kids on the block

i found her and she found me and

everything just made sense

our town wasn't exactly pleasant

but she made it home

we would spend our evenings running around the park

finding respite in the green field at the back of the library and

she would stare at the stars and i would

stare at her

we grew up this way

in the back fields and back alleys

huddled under the bleachers

laying on our backs on the asphalt to soak up the sun

she had a certain fondness for a bridge on the other side of town and

we went quite often to sit by the railing and

i would braid her hair and we would both

pretend that this could last forever

so we did and

everything was fine

everything was fine and then one day she tripped and then

she was hanging off the side of the bridge

the girl i loved was hanging off the side of a bridge

and i stood there

she cried and cried and begged

help me, pull me up, save me, help me, helpmehelpmeplease

and i stood there

she couldn't hold herself up anymore

her fingers were slipping one by one so

she fell and

i watched and then

i just had to walk away