We were pen pals.<\/p>\n
First, we were friends.<\/p>\n
Then, we went to college,<\/p>\n
she up north, I down south.<\/p>\n
So, we bought stationery,<\/p>\n
envelopes, and fine point pens.<\/p>\n
The mailbox held word-gifts,<\/p>\n
much awaited,<\/p>\n
and, in return, smiles<\/p>\n
at the little red flag at rest–<\/p>\n
the letter box surprise.<\/p>\n
We once lived together,<\/p>\n
the three of us,<\/p>\n
in apartment 3G,<\/p>\n
like the comic strip<\/p>\n
no one remembers.<\/p>\n
Only two parking spots,<\/p>\n
one of us running<\/p>\n
to safely make it home<\/p>\n
from across the street<\/p>\n
of a shady neighborhood.<\/p>\n
After, she lived with me,<\/p>\n
in the circle, a house<\/p>\n
we could not afford so<\/p>\n
rented every square inch<\/p>\n
to pay the mortgage.<\/p>\n
Holly’s room, the queen<\/p>\n
suite, suited her.<\/p>\n
Her royal touch,<\/p>\n
like the fingers she lay<\/p>\n
on my shoulder, as<\/p>\n
she leaned over<\/p>\n
from the arm of the couch,<\/p>\n
as if we’d always known<\/p>\n
each other, as if we’d<\/p>\n
been in mid-conversation.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got these spots on my arm.<\/p>\n
What do you think they could be?”<\/p>\n
I was mortified.<\/p>\n
Who dared speak to me, hiding<\/p>\n
out in the back room, away<\/p>\n
from the party’s throbbing center,<\/p>\n
avoiding people?<\/p>\n
And she captured me.<\/p>\n
Somehow, she gathered my ease.<\/p>\n
So, when I penned my words<\/p>\n
on a neat square of yellow flowers,<\/p>\n
a half dozen years later,<\/p>\n
and sent it north, the red flag up,<\/p>\n
she responded:<\/p>\n
“He won’t leave you.<\/p>\n
And if he does, it will hurt<\/p>\n
until it doesn’t.<\/p>\n
This too shall pass.”<\/p>\n
It did.<\/p>\n
She returned.<\/p>\n
We toured the states<\/p>\n
in celebration of college degrees.<\/p>\n
Drove a Volkswagen Bug<\/p>\n
her boyfriend’s friend rebuilt<\/p>\n
cross country, losing parts<\/p>\n
along the way,<\/p>\n
swollen tires in Tacoma,<\/p>\n
loud muffler in Yellowstone,<\/p>\n
and ball bearings in Ohio,<\/p>\n
and yet,<\/p>\n
we made it to DC.<\/p>\n
I took an Amtrak to New York,<\/p>\n
where everything changed,<\/p>\n
including a reason to be there.<\/p>\n
Thirty years later,<\/p>\n
I hugged her as she cried,<\/p>\n
tears of shame and remembrance,<\/p>\n
as I called her my “forever friend.”<\/p>\n
My palms cupping her cheeks,<\/p>\n
thick from stuffing grief,<\/p>\n
I spoke her words,<\/p>\n
“This too shall pass.”<\/p>\n
And she did.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We were pen pals. First, we were friends. Then, we went to college, she up north, I down south. So, we bought stationery, envelopes, and fine point pens. The mailbox held word-gifts, much awaited, and, in return, smiles at the little red flag at rest–…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":196,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/196"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94451"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103690,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94451\/revisions\/103690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}