by Chloe L., 16
What if …
A hazy film covers Los Angeles during the evening.
The light is not young anymore, but not yet old either.
The colors of a vibrant and shimmering orange and
a royal purple are laid over the Hollywood sign like a
cozy little blanket where we once took a tumble.
I’ll take you for a stroll around the bend on the hills
just like how we formally met. We’ll look out into the
sun setting in the sky and take a twirl here or there
again. I’ll take your hand in mine and you’ll smile
and tell me you love me. I’ll say I love you back
and on and on we’ll twirl and tap throughout the night
dancing under the dreamy stars of our dreams that
once were, but not anymore. We left them behind, but
it was worth it. Worth the years of looney jazz tunes
and your dismissals in the dramatics. Let us just be.
What if …
We joined our hands on top of the whole city next
to our beloved conservatory with the pendulum
of the ancients and the gods, with the sizzling spark
of electrical charge, with the dome covered in glittering
stars that we waltzed in one night. The little hydrogen
clouds surrounding us in a fairytale embrace because all
we saw was each other. Just each other and no one else.
We’d soon be at home with the nice picket-white fence
and lovely green lawn in a suburban town just outside the
West. A little one trails behind us as we take walks
between the rows and rows of lavender and fuchsia and
sunflowers and daisies and tulips. We’ll look at each
other with a knowing secret that we gave up everything
for this. But was it worth it? What we had once almost
held is now lost forever, floating away slowly into someone
else’s hands to be loved and cherished, or to be thrown
away all over again.
Avondale, Pennsylvania
Bridge Ink 