Fly Away

The edge of darkness makes a soft glow on the streets.
I pull the threads on my sleeve. My lips part and I sigh.
The night is a rollercoaster, and I’m enjoying the ride
But when I turn to look at the face of my new friend
I see something I never noticed before. I stutter.
The crosswalk turns green and he nudges my shoulder.

It’s like lights on a gas station in the middle of Montana.
A giant billboard as you’re hurtling down the highway.
Smoke rising from a fire on the edge of the horizon
I can see the sparks that circle the center of his heart.
I pretend it’s not there. I keep my head down.
I imagine a thunderstorm inside of my mind
Hoping the rolling rain can put out the fire in his chest
The one I know I started. Unintentionally.

His arm becomes a stampede on the cliff edge
As he tries to negotiate its place around my shoulders
But I’m an earthquake, and I shake him away.
I’m not a mountain, not an uncaring plod of grass
I’m a serpent. Do you want me to poison you?
When I speak, his body leans towards mine
But I tilt the other way, and we become a seesaw
We go up and down, back and forth, until I step off
Leaving him hurtling back down to earth.
He pretends he’s the prince, dancing with Cinderella
But when midnight strikes, it’ll be his castle
That turns into a pumpkin and begins to rot.

Because I am not the swiftly rolling tide
And he is not the shore that I am drawn to.
So all of the ground that we covered together
Turns into two continents on opposite sides
Of an ocean that grows more with each day
The water is rough, the waves choppy and harsh
And I don’t bother to brave them anymore.
He built his love like a lasso, to bring me in,
But he didn’t know I wasn’t just a girl,
But a bird, and if I wanted to, I’d fly away.

***

Erin Mullens (she/her) is an American college student with a passion for writing. She is an editor for Meditating Cat Zine and Angelique Zine, and when she is not writing she is probably reading the news or hiking in the woods. She has previously been published in Iceblink Lit, The Amazine, Words & Whispers Magazine, Persimmon Review, and Trash to Treasure Lit. You can follow her on Instagram at @moonchildisuhgood.