priceless
do you know what this is?
a worn down shelter
for lost thoughts
and dreams.
where whispers
of hope
and golden threads
of longing
reside,
glowing
and
exhausted.
rain clouds
and sun beams
bundled up
like a bouquet
of thornless roses.
a secret
or two
memories
of lies.
silence,
occasionally.
hold this.
hold my heart and make sure that
it doesn't break.
healing.
"Hold this?"
holding the broken pieces of something that once vaguely resembled my heart.
shattered.
broken.
bruised.
pieces slipping out of my hands.
offering them up to him, praying, hoping, longing he wouldn't let go, only for the pieces to break apart even more.
one by one giving the pieces to him, thoughts running in my head a million miles an hour, fear that the pieces would be broken.
relief washed over me.
the pieces were still intact, and were tenderly held in his hands.
days, weeks, months years passed.
he held the pieces ever so gently, nurtured them, took care of them.
as the days went by and the years flew past,
ever so slowly,
the pieces came back together.
and my heart was healed again.
What now?
"Hey, will you hold this for a sec?" the fear in his eyes was palpable, yet something inside of me moved my hand to reach for the sleek, inky box. Call it trust, call it naïveté, the promise of "a sec" lingered in the air as the man disappeared from where he stood, the only trace of him, the slight scent of amber wood. Welp, guess I finally developed full-on schizophrenia, I thought to myself.
I stood there, dumbfounded, in the middle of a busy sidewalk, holding this mysterious, surprisingly heavy, thing with both hands as I tried to make eye contact with anyone who passed by to confirm that I had, in fact, not gone crazy; that someone else, too, had seen a man pop in and out of our visual reality as if it were a video game.
Now, what to do with the box?
I couldn't stand here forever, I had to get to class. But, I also had sorta kinda promised that dude, in the act of taking the box, that I would hold onto it for a bit. Ah-ha! He told me to hold the box, but what he didn't tell me was whether I had to stay in the same place... At least, that would be my argument if he showed up, angry at my having left the place of our first meeting.
Ok, going to class with a mysterious, possibly explosive box-- totally not gonna blow up in my face. I chucked to myself at my accidental pun, then suddenly remembered the look on that guy's face. He was afraid. Running from something? Afraid he was gonna get caught with the box? Ah shit! I looked down at my watch, which glowed the numbers 12:55-- I was gonna be late.
The Orphan Twins
The orphanage was old and rusty. I decided to give a child a blanket.
"HOLD THIS!" a boy shouted to girl. The girl was very frightened and grabbed the necklace he had. They looked very similar.
"Hey" I said gently to the girl. "Is everything ok?"
"No" she sobbed. "My twin is growing evil everyday!"
I gave her the blanket without thinking and walked away. Never to return to see all the horrors the boy would do to the girl.