Even the ones who hide behind charm

can cause alarm

when they notice the hair on your arm

and look away

it took me time to realize that it doesn’t matter which way the crow flies it depends on where you’re going. i’m not following your dirty sweatpants walks, colors change talks when crunching leaves left a colder stare of what was there before you tried to repair shattered words with better despair? searching your eyes for pond jumping days when all we had was afternoon stays lunging into one another’s space a race to erase the frantic pace of what they all thought we could be

climbing scaffolding in search of the one who wouldn’t talk or ripen me