Grief Written

There was a boy who had a penny in the cupholder of his passenger seat... I put it there one day when the sky was amber and he was laughter and my curious fingers flicked through the ashtray. The cool metal warmed against my palm as I pushed around the pennies, whispering the year as they fell back into the ashtray. Your hand rested on the steering wheel loosely like all would only ever be well and the other sat palm up on the console between us... You were always waiting. I pressed the penny into your palm and closed your fingers around it. For a moment a penny sat between our pressed palms, I looked away from you and out the window as I told you "it's good luck." I felt your heartbeat in the penny between us. I put the penny in your cupholder and each time I sat in your passenger seat I searched for the penny...and just like you were it was always there. One day as you took me home I stared out the window and you kept both hands on ...

Today I sat on the grass lighting matches and watching the flames get closer to my fingers, Most of them burned out before it reached my fingers, Others I dropped before they got that far. People are a lot like matches, If you let them get close enough they'll burn you. Some take longer to do it, But they will.