JMB Poems

This was it. Oblivion was climbing in through my window with a smile on its face, and I was watching, unable to shut my window and close the curtains over it.

I took me a few hazy moments before I realized the flashing red and blue lights bouncing off my walls, casting a dark glow on Leo’s face. I watched the lights for a moment. As they went back and forth, Leo’s face changed from the colors and position of lights making him into three Leos. Three identities. Three different people stared at me with three different looks of emotion and I couldn’t tell which was the real Leo.

The cold air hit me, piercing my body like a silver bullet. The shrapnel ricocheted off my bones. My jacket pooled next to me on the gray concrete as it drooped from my hands. I looked around. The once melodious city began to become a bright white clamor, and then all at once, a monotonous buzz. I stood there in an icy conglomeration of corporate steel structures, motionless.

My feet moved quickly and loud in my head as I walked down the hot, damp midtown streets, but to everyone around me, they were soft against the milky hum of late night traffic. I felt my pale pink silk dress clinging to my body. I should’ve brought a wrap with me, but even if I did, I probably would’ve forgotten it on the way out. Besides, I kind of liked the way the skimpy fabric stuck to my body. It made me feel… empowered.