Flicker.

I wrote this for an English poem assignment last year, and I like it a lot. Thank you so much for reading! This poem is about a relationship that exhausts itself over the years.

One

We are a pair of new chalkboard slates colliding together

No eraser streaks, doodles, or stray marks

Perhaps mistakes will never be made,

for we are the special ones.

His sunny laugh dribbles into my ear like orchestra music

I listen and smile, for only I know what he sounds like,

and what he means.

Three

We are two oceans washing each other spotless after each miscalculation

Why did you do it? Why did you say it?

We scrub like mops on the kitchen floor

We scrub until blood oozes out our scalps

But blood is almost cherry wine

And nevertheless,

His clothes are of old library books, I inhale him and grin

And still,

Our 3AM talks are of moonlight

Beating down on wet pavement

Yes, of course, I know him.

Five

His tears trickle down like rain on store windows,

Us. Two

flickering

lights

His smile swings open like velvet curtains for Broadway,

But the show is toxic

It’s plastic

It’s fake.

His laugh is an ugly, backwards violin scale

I know he is sad,

But we never talk.

We lay in bed

We sigh. We actually made mistakes

With a lot to say but nothing to do, we are the trees on fire

We stare at the ceiling

Stay quiet, for we are finally tired.

Author's Note

Thanks for taking the time to read and review this! This is my first work that I'm putting up here :)