emerging from emergency

Somewhere down in Carolina

In a Civic Sport ‘19

Raleigh’s in the rear-view

To Boston he was but a dream

She was a girl multicolored with a heart just too bold

For a Southern coward boy with just a baby soul

In Raleigh’s at work fantasies

She lurked under his desk

For Boston wasn’t worth his attention

Until she got undressed

Teased her with his Versace-?

No, Chanel cologne

Had her pinned against his office wall like they were home alone

Said he doesn’t wear it much but, “let’s go see the ‘Canes”

Oh?

Then he’d cum in clutch?

Then he’d say her name?

Put her in his jersey

Turning black and red from black and gold

In their vortex Raleigh birthed a melody that never grew old

Hurricane season

She ran splashing through his puddles

Trying to cool her body as it burned like a candlewick

His sticks

Were J Williams

His skates CCM

Why did this matter?

Puck love was the beginning of them

Watercolor paintings of a picnic lunch

With no berries for Raleigh because he hated the seeds

He brought a basket full of chocolate cake and condoms

Sure to satisfy their needs

True Turkish delight alright

Waking up hot in the middle of the night

I got a Sony not Nikon, he said

“So you don’t want to make an OnlyFans with me? And I’ll make you a mother…we only need the plans, baby”

But they weren’t lovers

These cities never held hands

Knew each other barely a month

Bonded mostly over bands

Raleigh wore Boston on his socks to work

And paid rent at the gym but always hit her up first

Said, oh the weights feel light tonight

As if it were a hymn

She shivered in a too-small hospital bed

Her heart now living with him

While he was sweating like a whore in church

For her it only got worse

Cold solitude cracking the skull in her head

She swore she was dead

All alone

Drowned in her phone

Drowning out noise

She threw up broken melodies with poise

Clinging to the Carolina daydreams

Just to stay sane in the inane

Head in a kaleidoscope of clouds

Standing on the brink of insane

For she never once heard his voice,

That ‘Lina twang say her name

It was a game

Over the course of 20 days that I guess he never minded

They drifted apart as the flame she’d created died and he could no longer find it

So Raleigh suited up for a lady in his area code

While Boston was curled up frightened wishing someone would help bear her load

Hurricane warning, Raleigh stirred up trouble

And I guess we’ll call her Charlotte since they were now a couple

Big ick but that boy was bitch-made

Boston pushed to the back burner where she reluctantly stayed

Reduced to nothing, she turned the corner and prayed

Stumbling into lightning

You still keep me up in meetings, he said

After 20 days of silence

But Boston was good as dead from all the mental violence

And he kept Charlotte in his back pocket

Thought he could get the game down to a science

But Boston brought quahogs to the table

When all Raleigh knew was shrimp and grits

She gritted her teeth at his final absence

Swearing his breath licked her neck

But the thing about Raleigh and Boston is…