Love Poem: Exactly 17 People Passed By Without Stopping To See If I Was Alright
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Written by: Hana Ryusaka

Exactly 17 People Passed By Without Stopping To See If I Was Alright

This is a love 
that is bitter as citrus
that leaves me burning coldly
bowed head, clenched fists
on a park bench 
in the middle of winter

The people see
but they can't help it
they can't help me from falling
so they walk by with 
shadows spinning 
like spiderwebs in their 
eyes
and their fingers 
to their
lips

Don't touch her
they must say to their unruly children
Don't disturb her
or she might blow away
in a thousand starburst patterns
of skin

because I'm grieving 
for a loss that has yet to find me 
and I'm falling
as calmly and as irrevocably as a snowflake
rescinding into myself
into ash on the pavement

I can't save myself from this
dear
My fingers are too cold
to reach inside my chest anymore
I'm untouchable 

I let my eyes burn into the sky
because somehow that's where I
expect him to be

  but I'm always
    always wrong