Locked In My Mind [Poems]

Misread Stars: a His and Hers Story

HERS:

i had read the stars all wrong

i had thought it was us

set in the stars

we were star-crossed lovers

as lois and her superman

as juliet and her romeo

but that door closed

as he walked away

and in that moment

my heart ceased to beat

but even as the broken fragments

were pressed into the dirt by his walking feet

the sun and earth eclipsed each other

and the moon continued its steady cycle

empty then full

empty then full

only the piano keys

with their black and white view

could spin out my pain to a tune

“oh, how could i have read the stars so wrong?”

the ebb and flow of the tides accompanying the moon’s cycle

and the seasons that passed as the Earth moved ‘round the sun

was, for me, a signal of celestial inconsistency

cold and heartless, my lunar confidant

my only constant a boy

who was my counsel, my friend

and as a girl said in a book i once loved,

“I fell in love with him the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once”

HIS:

she read the stars all wrong

so with a broken heart and shattered dreams she wrote a song

cracked fractals of beautiful sound trapped in her misery

"oh, how could i have read the stars so wrong?"

and that's all that is left now

now that he's gone

the piano plays as the moon eclipses

she is wandering on

and into me

and she looked at me

but did not see

she didn't see the little boy inside

who had loved one girl almost all his life

she didn't see that boy when she asked me why

when she asked,

"oh, how could i have read the stars so wrong?"

and i only said what i thought the first time

i stared at the broken girl who sang

"Oh, how could i have read the stars so wrong?"

i told her this and this alone

" how can you read the stars? how could you have read them at all? stars dont speak. they only watch time spin on from their place in the universe as they burn themselves to death."

and she stared at me

and stared at me

and for the first time in a long while

she smiled