Sandwiches

….and today, a vast departure from the blog norm.

I’ve been doing creative writing in my spare time. I tell people that I’m doing this, but I hesitate to share much of anything. It feels a little too personal. Which is messed up, if you think about it—I’ll tell humiliating real-life stories about fruit fly infestations and mice in my kitchen, etc., but I won’t share stuff that I made up? Weird.

In an effort to battle my own hypocrisy, here’s something from the creative writing realm.

This is written from the perspective of someone who has lost someone dear to them.

Sandwiches

You kept finishing my sandwiches

Even though I’d intended to finish them myself

And the fact that this didn’t anger me, but rather, made me smile

Was how I knew I liked you

You and your quick wit

The only wit that has ever kept up with mine

You and your pure heart

Which you said had been broken and then healed

You said it was looking for home

And found it in me, accidentally

That was when I knew I loved you

The last time I saw you

You couldn’t look me in the eye

You didn’t even look at my face

Would it have been like looking at the sun?
Or would it have been like looking at a ghost

At the specter of the life we almost had

No matter, really

Nothing changes

The leaves have fallen

They are strewn about the top of our gilded table

And it’s cold and dreary

The little black bugs are dead now

Unable to hurt us anymore

Miraculously the world still spins

But nothing changes

I dreamt last night that you were there

I was sitting on a picnic table under a tree

Waiting for you

And you rode up on a horse

But then I knew I was dreaming

Because you’re afraid of horses

Like me

You’re gone now

An ocean away, more than that

But the memory of you

The last time you looked at me

Really looked at me

You were walking away, but you turned back

The sun lit your face

And you smiled

A heartbreaking smile

It was for me then

And it’s still mine now

I get to keep it

I get to carefully wrap your bittersweet smile in soft blankets

And hold it gently

I’ll tuck it away

In the safest corner of my heart

I hope that you’re well

No, I hope that you’re whole

Wherever you are, wherever you go

I hope you find home

As for me, I’m finishing my own sandwiches now