IN WHICH I RUN OUT OF BREATH BEFORE THE END

it’s not that i miss you i just miss being wanted & in my head you still want me 
but i know that we’re past that i know you’re past me i know the bus has long since
left the station but i’m still here waiting next to the peeling posters & the half-
eaten mcdonald’s fries & the bench with the gum on the armrests because in my head 
you’re still walking down the sidewalk with the grey sky overhead like the world’s 
most uniform high school theatre backdrop in my head you’re still hiding behind the 
glass walls of the bus stop shelter to surprise me in my head you’ve put your 
maroon sweater in your backpack for when i get cold and god i’m still cold but i 
don’t have the sweater i just miss being wanted i miss being warm i miss having 
someone who cared if i was warm i miss waiting at bus stops and knowing someone 
would come for me i miss leaning against the wall and knowing i would be somewhere, 
anywhere, but here.

© Joyce Liu