Stanzas: Monthly Chapbooks September 2015 (Internet) | Page 29

I’d Rather Be Outside
Paul Them
but I’m scrolling through pages
and pages of my friends’ tripe
a shopped photo of a repulsive homemade omelet
a muddled political rant
an update about a vacation I don’t care about
from a couple I forget having met
and then, like a shark too smart to fall for the bait
but longing to be caught,
I’m clicking links of vapid headlines not worth recounting,
desperate to experience anything besides
swimming another lap in the same lonely circle
when I inevitably find myself coming back to photos of us
here, with your windblown hair whipping my face
here, with your younger face nuzzled against mine—
I can still feel your touch when I see you here,
flying towards me at the speed of light
though we will never see each other in a thousand years.
I’d rather be outside
sitting with you on the ledge of that castle
wherever that was
than stumbling through the graveyard of our lives
wherever this is.

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