Girls Like You

It’s always time for tea, and when I looked

at you, that one time in October, while I

felt discomfited, I thought about black tea

and strange girls, the only ones I have ever

known, trance-like faces and eyes, terrors

gripped inside woven fabrics, mixed mesh

melded into colors – unnatural – tattooed like

bikers, and foulmouthed like trash day, but their

beauty beatified, saints and sinners grow up,

and on my lap I waited for them to return,

for their eyes to discover how you move, how

you choose to live, we accepted it, we knew

it was what you knew, I suggested we part,

after all, it wasn’t right, your object filled,

new found sex, but tea was always on my

mind, girls like you liked tea, and I knew

at coffee in the morning, I would put the pot

on, to see you sip oddly, just like you were,

just like the peace you searched for, just like

the pain that you left behind, just like the

crying faces and eyes burnt by your memory,

lost by your choice, just like this tea, this day,

I raise to my lips, in your memory, in a cup

you gave to me, tight in my fingertips,

tight in my mind, spring free and live again,

let us all dance and sing and love, let us

accept this and remedy the pain, I will make

you tea, I will say I’m sorry, please return

to this place, free from suffering,  we’ll heal and

hold all of your love, dance lithe and try again

~ by Shawn M. Young on May 26, 2017.