The Free Verse Society: Chapters 39–50

“It’s not talent, it’s tenacity. Fighting for what you want.”

We both turn our heads when we hear a resounding bang behind us.

There’s a smattering of applause and Awwws, and when I peek over at Jae, she looks positively smug.

This is a call to arms, you sluggards, You lowly, friendless “freaks,” You nerds, you geeks, You bespectacled dreamers.

I see her in my periphery still clapping profusely for William, and then she leans back my way, her body closer than before.

I see her in my periphery still clapping profusely for William, and then she leans back my way, her body closer than before.

But the phenomenon of
You is what trips me up
That little glimmer in your iris is
The light from a half-gone star 4.5 billion years old
That traveled through millions of miles of emptiness
Just to kiss the aperture of your eye, like it wants to die
There

Anything to get my mind off this incessant heat inside me.

Two words, drowned in my deluge of anger and so easy to miss.

I breathe in the intoxicating sweetness of the flowers, a smell that feels like Sunday walks with Mom through gardens.

Her eyes meet mine, and my heart is completely rended.

I’m standing in front of that nondescript yellow building that looks like it should be full of flowery sofas and doilies but is a magical garden in the heart of Delray.

The car jostles as we pull up to the curb.

I relish the soft sigh from his lips.

And when he reads the opening benediction to the universe, I feel goose bumps rippling across my skin.