The clock hand spins
Rounding the hours
Of another late Manhattan night
Awaiting our subway
Our faces twist inward
Drab air bats against our pinched lips
Smeared with red ignorance
Knocking to ask if we have any breath
And are truly living
Screeches of melting steel
Shake the reeling pillars
Putters of oxfords and pumps
Muffle my imprudence
A frail man gimps up
And turns a palm for change
But I disregard his motion
My eyes enveloped in a watery lapse
Of infinite wind pressed subways
Your dress shirt falls lax
But my pea coat only stiffens
Scraps of our fidelity
Cut in bloom
Crumbled in my pockets
How long will this suffice?
I am nauseous from our conjectures
And the molding grout in between
The quilts of white tile walls
Rotted from musky criticisms silent in the air
This pale heart grows colder in your arms
But when my vowels swell in your mouth
My bones soften
Do your weary eyes say “Luna, I still love you? ”
Blue sags of worry and black pools of promise
Because I do
If only I had some chalk in my pocket
I would rewrite our story into the concrete
Licking matte dust from my hands
Until my stale tongue shrivels up
But the clock hand slides past midnight—
And fairytales can not survive
With rats gambling their lives
On the tracks rattling an incoming
Instead the rails ache
And your skin swelters
Drips from my fingertips
Spilling into puddles that spoil my shoes
Why did I neglect to see?
The frail man begging me for change
Was Hopelessness telling me that
Our subway car teetered and collapsed
At 86th Street Station
With the end beyond our means
A resigned stagnancy impassable
I escape the Eighth Avenue Line
Relinquishing you
And your weary eyes
To watch the railways alone
So I can nestle the glitter in the dark open sky
So I can drink the pulp of the milky moon
So I can kiss the crisp air that teems with rain
In the late Manhattan night that moves
Because all that remains left for me
Is to live in your memories
Allie Fehr is a high school senior from Cincinnati, Ohio. Her work has been recognized by the Scholastic Art and Writing Awards and Ohio General Federation of Women's Clubs. In the future, Allie hopes to pursue screenwriting.
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