still,
i saw you first, when we were sixteen.
my life was clouded
by teenage longings
and the birth of nostalgia.
worlds were moving so fast, but you stood there so still.
my life was clouded
by teenage longings
and the birth of nostalgia.
worlds were moving so fast, but you stood there so still.
i got to class late, and when i opened the door you were opposite me.
for a second we looked at each other,
and then you turned away.
icouldn’t understand why a moment that felt so unremarkable was branded in my mind.
class ended and as you pass,
my shadow fell.
my shadow dances,
her smoke leans over,
and on the page,
she stains ‘love’,
in blue biro.
she looks at me and winks.
for in this moment, the only way i could show how much i loved you was in a mirical,
carried by a stranger.
the shadow pulls me away, leaving us in a moment we would never understand.
we fall through time onto your bed.
ifeel you next to me.
your soft body,
next to mine.
and the world once again,
feels comfortably still.
in the midst of a dream, you stretch.
and street lights your back.
the moment hovers for longer than it could,
time lingers, and then it snaps.
the world curls and my shadow screams-
why can’t you know who this person will be?
but i haven’t met you yet.
she throws me to the ground, and you’re next to me. walking past, with the rest of our class.
i first saw you when we were sixteen.
for a second in my life, you felt ordinary.
it was the only moment in my life i won’t love you.
and i will never understand how that can be.
she takes my hand and pulls me back to you.
and i see us both,
dancing in Venice, over late-night bridges
and i question
how i can love a stranger more than I love myself?
the earth cracks, and i slip through.
in the distance i see us walking.
my shadow hangs over us like a puppet master,
bending paths that wind us into a bar, deep underneath the ground.
she turns to red smoke, and sings us songs from our grandparent's dreams.
the moment before you told me -
draw how you feel about me -
and i couldn’t. Because i felt so much, nothing was enough.
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in your light, the shadow shows its face.
she winks, again, as she grabs me from your warm side,
and throws me into cold spirals of time.
i bound between memories of you and me,
and she laughs at how easily i squirm.
she shows me the moments i will fall in love with you,
over and over again.
and then the moment our love will stop.
the warmth from your eyes suffocates me,
as I see it’s end.
your eyes go cold, and so do i.
my blood turns thick, with every memory that won’t be made.
![]()
and i see us both,
dancing in Venice, over late-night bridges
and i question
how i can love a stranger more than I love myself?
the earth cracks, and i slip through.
in the distance i see us walking.
my shadow hangs over us like a puppet master,
bending paths that wind us into a bar, deep underneath the ground.
she turns to red smoke, and sings us songs from our grandparent's dreams.
the moment before you told me -
draw how you feel about me -
and i couldn’t. Because i felt so much, nothing was enough.
in your light, the shadow shows its face.
she winks, again, as she grabs me from your warm side,
and throws me into cold spirals of time.
i bound between memories of you and me,
and she laughs at how easily i squirm.
she shows me the moments i will fall in love with you,
over and over again.
and then the moment our love will stop.
the warmth from your eyes suffocates me,
as I see it’s end.
your eyes go cold, and so do i.
my blood turns thick, with every memory that won’t be made.
