No Air

i had not stopped to think about your smile and my heart beat fast as i walked up and down the terminal steps, throwing glances at the opening overflowing with next day returnees.

The streets were crowded and i could barely make you out somewhere across the spinning sea of swimming faces.

i laughed nervously feeling the slow collapse of my breathing pattern.

no air,

as we walked in our small beginning, sat cross-legged in the grass, passing a feeling back and forth.

i don’t remember if you sat next to me as we bumped and bruised our way back home or if the door was locked when we finally reached our destination.

i don’t remember if you put your hand on my face or if i could hear your heart beating through your chest.

all i can recall is the lack of oxygen escaping into me, my sure inability to breathe, the simplicity in my thoughts as there was no air.

it was getting close to midnight when i walked you down to the street.

we stood locked in mystery for what could have been a moment, might have been a lifetime.

the bus tossed itself around the corner and we left it there.

i shouted something as i crossed to other side, as i fell away from you, and then you were gone.

swallowed by the light-less street.

i sat on the stoop for a long time, engraving every second of every minute with you, into me.

i watched the pale pink of morning place its soft touch on this city.

i watched the anxious beings in their early Saturdays, pacing quickly through their thoughts.

i watched the teenage romantics make up and break up.

the mother clasping her child’s hand as she balanced the imbalance of life.

i watched myself let go of you, of this.

i watched the earth over grown inside this

and the vines wrap around it.

the tendrils of green cradle it in their arms.

and then,

i got on a plane

and left it there.

letting the air run wild through my veins.

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Iris Grace is a young poetess and San Francisco resident.  To contact her about her poetry, send an email to iris_grace92@yahoo.com.

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Conversation Never Had

The streets are empty, long void of the busy and bustling, the babies in strollers, the bump and thump of everyday.

The bass is turned down, turned off, tuned out; no longer pulsing through the sidewalks and stairwells.

He sits, his soft features illuminated by the foggy glow of a distant streetlight.

One hand rests on the cool damp section of their bench, their place, their harmony.

The other traces lightly across her pale peach cheekbone.

His fingertips float like a feather, like a kiss sent into the wind and land on her lips.

Her eyes lay shut on a bed of flawless face, serene lake, still breeze.

The night envelopes them in its broad and gentle embrace. It holds them,

Close and comforted.

Time slows to an everlasting stop, a never-ending dream, two lovers lips locked for an eternity.

The waves roll in and carry a whisper on their backs, carry a promise deep in their hearts.

The moon shines bright with a secret,

And you can hear it echo through the trees,

“I shall never let you go.”

I give all of me. I serve myself on a vast platter and they get all of me. No hold back no maybe, no only some days, no.

All of me.

They say I fall too fast, I feel too much, I am too full of heart.

I say, I give all of me.

He says he’s worried. He says, he doesn’t know how to handle my fever for love,

My desire for passion,

My pursuit for forever.

He says I am breaking my own heart.

I say, I give all of me.

He leaves without notice, he leaves without me, he leaves and another takes his place.

This one, he has no PhD on the condition of my heart, no degree in the laws of how much love is too much love, but he speaks like he is a professional.

He says I have a problem.

He says I am addicted to love, and that is worse than smoking, that will kill me quicker.

He says my heart, is simply just too big.

I say, I give all of me.

He takes his notes and lectures,

His facts and figures, he takes another piece of my “too big” heart and he is gone.

And still others filter through.

Trailing with them more concerns on the functions of my heart,

More conclusions on my over-flowing body of love,

My deep ocean of want, of need to give all of me.

After the people have left in twos, gone home to their conversations of love, their interactions of passion

I sit alone in the dim light,

I sit alone in an open place,

I sit alone with the waves and whisper,

“I give all of me, to me”

And I can hear in the trees,

In the soul of the moon,

A soft secret, an unspoken promise,

“You shall never let you go”