bitter coffee
you were the cream and i was the coffee
i kept you awake at any hour of the day
the sugar was love
i piled it on, i tried to stay sweet
but you didn’t see
so the cream went away
and stopped showing up every morning
and started mixing with tea instead
well, things got darker a few shades
and when you left everyone noticed
but my love for you stayed
distance
i fell for you the way a cloud moves with no wind, slowly
you had sweaters i, at first, would always compliment
then later wanted to wake up in. you were my blind spot
too busy looking ahead to see you by my side, the whole time
i learned to fall in love with green circles and the sound of static
428 miles were reduced to a few seconds of ringing before your voice
from midnight missing you’s and locking ourselves in our rooms
you felt like a cold computer screen with a warm smile
minutes turned into hours, hours turned into looking up
the price of a bus ticket to New York in December
i called you mine, and my mom called you family
we made plans for a life together without ever once hugging
you’ve comforted my crying with no need for a shoulder
we agreed maybe when we’re older, we’d try to make “us” happen
but poor connections, low batteries, and dropped calls interfered
time to read
i haven’t had much time to read lately
oh, but if i did i would scan every page twice
i would analyze every word, delicately,
pressing violets as bookmarks between
her palms and her thighs alike
i would breathe in her margins and
smell home, the coffee she sat by
i would wipe the dust off her jacket
lie back and ask her, this time,
if would she like to stay awhile.
Vivian Isabel is a junior at Mary Baldwin University pursuing a degree in English, as well as her Master of Arts in Teaching. She hopes to teach English and Theatre at her old high school, while writing a bit on the side. She has previously been published in issues two and five of the White Ash Literary Magazine and volumes 8.2 and 9.1 of Outrageous Fortune. The majority of her works are inspired by real events and people in her life. She is optimistically in the progress of writing two anthologies, encompassing her Cambodian-American culture and previous experiences in love.