My mind is faltering for the right words to sum this all up. Here is the interlude where I tell you how sorry I am and we're awkward for a few moments and then here is the part where we're supposed to dash into each other's arms like we were meant to be there all along. And yet...

You're still just standing there staring at the ground like there was a story in the pavement that we stand on and you are reading it from your satellite in the sky. So I ruffle my hair into various positions and shift in my shoes and watch the grumpy old man in the moth-holed cardigan get into his Buick. And yeah I feel like pure shit. And finally I muster up, "So this is the aftermath."

You sit stiffly in those shoes. There is no smile on your face but a fortitude in your stance however cadenced and I run lyrics through my head to figure out what she said and in the end I'm bashing my head against the steering wheel wondering where all the words were hiding. Maybe they were underneath that pavement you were studying. Maybe we were just looking for them in places where we won't find them because they're nestled underneath the feathers of a bird already flown away.


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