on the last day of real summer
(for me),
he left.
he comes to say good-bye.
but i won't reply. i ignore him until
he sighs and gives up and goes away,
the floorboards creaking with his every step.
i wait for the roar as he starts his engine,
and the rumbling sounds
as he drives away;
but instead i hear his footsteps returning,
quicker and more urgently
this time.
i stand up just as he bursts through the back door.
"lairen," he says. "lairen. lairen."
and i am crying, because he has a canvas
of
me.
"will you wait for me?"
he asks later as we lay in the tall grasses,
and i am listening to his heart pounding,
so in contrast with the steady beat of the ocean nearby.
and i don't know why but i said yes to you that day,
and maybe that's why i didn't feel quite so alone
or quite so sad
when you finally left.
going back to that red-bricked building was hard for me, and every day
i stare out the window,
drowning out the whispers and stares and harsh lectures
wishing i could see the ocean from my desk.
ocean
ocean
ocean
the sun peeked through green branches,
but i prefer the way it would dance off the mirrored surface of a summer sea.
i
am
empty
without the ocean next to me.
going home in the afternoons is a breath of fresh air
and i welcome the blue and smile and cry and
{ i am happy }
(even though you're not here)
YOU ARE READING
Rhapsody
NouvellesA shoebox collection of short fables, stories in verse, discontinued manuscripts, and other fluffy curio. Featured by Wattpad under "Short Story" from October 2013 to 2015.
