If we all leave for boba tea as the adults
sing on the karaoke, we could hear
their echoes surrender to a choir of frogs while
petrichor accompanies us on our walk
and runoff murmurs absently beneath the streets
about a past life that kept us waiting indoors.
We would be carried by our laughter---sometimes
interrupted by the dance of streetlit ghosts
of gnats---to a plaza where convenience stores,
a fast-food restaurant, Filipino market, and boba cafe
yield fluorescence to our reflections
passing in softly rippling puddles. But
today, those stores are wrapped in weeds into one
vacant edifice, brimming with silence that slowly
streamed into our estrangement; still, that moment,
crystallized by laughter behind rain, remains
in that familiar darkness between two worlds,
where there is always space for us.
Draft 4: Always Space
If we all leave for boba tea as the adults
sing on the karaoke, we could hear their echoes
give in to a choir of croaking frogs while
a petrichor accompanies us on our walk
and runoff murmurs absently beneath the streets
about a past life that kept us waiting indoors.
We would be carried by our laughter---sometimes
interrupted by the dance of warmly streetlit ghosts
of gnats---to a plaza where convenience stores,
a fast-food restaurant, Filipino market, and boba cafe
yield fluorescence to our reflections
passing in softly rippling puddles. But,
today, those stores are overgrown with sticker weeds
and thistle. They loom as one vacant edifice that
brimmed steady streams of silence into our estrangement;
yet, that moment, crystallized in rain and laughter,
remains in that familiar darkness between two worlds,
where there is always space for us.
Draft 3: Always Space
We could all leave for boba tea as the adults
sing on the karaoke, and hear their echoes
give in to a choir of croaking frogs, and
a petrichor might accompany us on our walk,
blankly murmuring beneath the street
about a past life that kept us waiting indoors.
And we would be carried, under streetlights,
by our laughter to a plaza
overgrown today with sticker weeds and thistle.
Those stores now loom in vacancy, as one edifice
diffusing a silence which estranged us; yet,
that moment, crystallized in rain and laughter,
remains in that familiar darkness between two worlds,
where there is always space for us.
Draft 2: Always Space
We could leave for boba tea as they sing
on the karaoke, and hear their echoes
give in to a choir of croaking frogs, and
a petrichor might accompany us on our walk,
blankly murmuring beneath the street
about a past life that kept us waiting indoors.
We would be carried, in the streetlights,
by our laughter to a plaza
overgrown today with sticker weeds and thistle.
Those stores now loom in vacancy, as one edifice
diffusing a silence that estranged us; yet,
that moment, crystallized in rain and laughter,
remains in that familiar darkness
between two worlds, where there is always space
for all of us.
Draft 1: Always Space
We will leave for boba tea as they sing
U2's "With or Without You" on karaoke,
their echoes yielding to a choir
of croaking frogs and a petrichor
that will accompany us on our walk,
mindlessly whispering beneath the street
of a past life that kept us waiting indoors.
We'll be carried, in the streetlights,
by our laughter to a plaza
overgrown today with sticker weeds and thistle.
The stores now loom in vacancy, as one edifice
diffusing a silence that estranged us; yet that moment,
