exhaustion is a one-way ticket to a hilltop station with an obscure name where we sit with our sandals in our hands, feet propped up on the armrests of hot metal benches spray-painted green, our legs aching with the fatigue of too much collective worrying and too little to worry about. there is only one roof and our tongues loll in time to the ceiling fan's slow whirring as it bats the flies away; they fly toward us instead, sticking to our skulls, tiny wings flapping
[do not let us go].
in the humidity of a place i call a standstill call a temporary home from unrest and territorial cacophony, my heart rescinds all the force that comes with grieving, and i find myself wishing i had [taken back all my names from her] never given her any of my names before she walked beyond the ticket booth and into the real world. my straw hat chafes my nose and my heels are skinned and my knees are bleeding and you puncture my sad bubble every time you say something vaguely funny and unassuming and bitter with a subtle twist of why-does-this-hurt-so-bad.
[why did the chicken cross the track?
because he was tired of being cooped up in somebody else's heart.]
it makes me far happier than you suppose it ever could, though, listening to you, listening to the buzz of my pulse under loose skin coverlets every time your hand moves over a gulf of air to clutch at mine. if there's a tune to our universe, i am a failure at determining the song, but it's okay because we're not waiting for a train and we have a hell of a lot of time to figure out what the words mean. there is only one roof; beyond is a dictionary of clouded reason and irrational discomforts; they strike the planes of your face like drums and my heart like it's always been a bassoon. the day is
heavier than you would suppose. the day is
heavy.
we are the nails in somebody else's coffin and i'm still figuring out the ropes. here, our faces hot. here, my heart guilt-wrenched and face tear-stained with the melody that comes with i-no-longer-have-it-in-me-to-find-the-weeping.
'do you think,
we should walk home instead of waiting?'
a pause. my heart rescinds.
'i wouldn't mind.'
Points: 92
Reviews: 14
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