Messages

You sent your thoughts sailing

Out your open bedroom window

Scribbled down

Folded into paper airplanes

Things no one else would

Listen to:

Fragmented lines of poetry

Comments on society

A description of the dream you had

At two o’clock that morning

You launched them

Out in the fragile air

And thought maybe if they flew

Far enough

They would find someone

Who cared

You wrote down your feelings

On the walls of buildings

Where everyone

Could see;

Rough concrete

Smooth white plaster

The scratched, shiny gloss

Of a bathroom stall

“BECAUSE I’M WORTH MILLIONS”

Scrawled high in spray-paint

On a plain brick wall

“Because I’m worth nothing”

In black marker

Lost among countless other words

You left evidence

Of you

Wherever you went

As if to prove to yourself

You hadn’t ceased to exist

You left your secrets

In library books

Folded into squares

To be tucked within the pages

You pretended you were writing

To a trustworthy friend

And you told them

Your fears

Your wishes

Your flaws

The contents of your heart

Laid bare

For an unwitting stranger to read

And you ended each note

With a hopeful “Write back”

Please

Write back

Write back

You wrote in bright chalk

In the middle of the road

“IS ANYBODY OUT THERE?”

You just wanted someone to hear you