-Socrates
What girl will care for us, do you think,
if we continue in these ways?
Must you take everything? Must you know everything?
Must you have a part in everything?
-William Carlos Williams
She refused to look at me
Watery eyes fixated on
Tearing napkins apart with long fingernails
Slicing through the grooves and scowling at
The sound of loud music and shouting girls
muffled by the bathroom door.
We spoke like some soap opera
‘Love is never clean’ I declared
As she sat on the bathroom counter
Feet wedged in the sink
‘its always covered in muck and mire
don’t look for polished hearts
that will be your downfall’
I sipped my beer then
Bit down into the aluminum
Feeling the metal on my tongue
‘your heart is crooked’ she replied
as she lost interest in the napkins
and moved onto the cardboard roll
her nails parting the cylinder like they were a knife
destroying its shape, making it flat
‘safer crooked and short then straight and long’
I watched as the cardboard was torn
Into pieces the size of my thumb
Only to drift slowly to the dirty floor
To join the shredded napkins
And hair crusted to the tile
Her nails then went to her olive skin
Grazing over forearms
In a graceful tremble
‘I never realized how long your nails have gotten’
I leaned against the door to block the sound billowing in
‘Those sort of things sneak up on you’
Her hands fell limply to her side
keep your face to the sunset and don't follow the stars.
