The Waitress

Alone in the back
Fumbling
With sugar packets
With coffee stains on her apron
With calluses on her toes
With untamed, rampant thoughts

Old, Musty Quilt

Alone
Alone
Running alone
And it was a long day
No, a long year
Alone

That word is never far
But never admitted
Why utter what you cannot fix?

He left me that night
It was March 9th
Perfectly still I sat in our wretched apartment
My sons were in the next room
Two and four years old
He was done
I didn’t fight him
Just crumbled
Wrapped in that quilt on the puffy love seat looking at the dark wall
Watching his shadow throw the ring and take the keys
As he angrily freed himself from his life
My life
Our children's lives

Our love will last forever and ever
Even when we die we’ll be best friends in heaven
Isn’t there love in heaven?
We were oblivious to life
Sitting under that big sycamore tree by the pond
Eating our picnic lunch
My grandma’s quilt underneath us
Eyes looking up into the bright blue sky

It’s hard not to look back now

The Embrace

she’s lost
exposed
and cold
And drifts to a nameless destination

joints ache
head pounds
feet run
The frantic cold whips at her tingling skin

“Smile, you!”

Shaking, she hugs herself
Adding one more barrier against the world,
Bracing herself

Again,
“Smile, you!”

She steadies her gaze ahead
Ugly salt rips shamefully down her cheeks

He caught me!
She realizes

“hey, you!
it’s me!
come here,”
He shouts, awkwardly ambling after her

The calc. kid, she sighs
She doesn’t bother to wipe her tears

he nears
arms wide
then hugs
And steps back to study her secret face

And remarks
“So,
You smile.”