Wednesday, December 21, 2005

This is how I will win your heart

by telling you this.

I was at work and I was miserable as customers made a mess. I was in charge of the footwear department that day, which meant that I had to pick up dirty shoes off the floor as people threw them back on the ground. As each long hour passed I hated their happy faces which seemed to show how looking for a shoe can make the world better. Inevitably, I resented the smiles that accompanied the requests they required from me. My frustration only exacerbated, for while I was covered with dust and grime as I wiped my brow with my dirty hands, I thought of someone I loved who loved somebody else.

I thought I was cursed and my existence tasted bitter. I was lost in a world without love, just because I loved someone who didn't love me.

And it was one of the many moments in my life when I said to myself this is hell: for no other reason that I didn't get what I want--and I did a pretty good job of convincing myself that she was what I wanted. As if she was the only person I wanted.

I finished my shift, but I wasn't finished feeling sorry myself. I had the self-righteous convinction that I was entitled to her love. Her love was supposed to be mine and I felt cheated that someone else had claim to it.

But when I stepped outside that evening, as the sun beamed down on the world, reflecting on the hard and heated pavement, I said to myself how it would be good to go for a walk with someone.

For no other reason than accidental proximity (i.e., you lived a few blocks away), I called you and asked if you wanted to go outside to smoke a cigarette.

You said yes. So I came to your house and picked you up and we sat outside on nearby bench and we talked.

When the sun went down as the darkness crept in, creating dark blue shadows on the trees surrounding the bench we sat on, your face illuminated as you laughed and I thought this isn't so bad.

This is wonderful. So what if the other girl loved someone else? Good for her.

In that moment, I felt there was something filling the gap, as water was poured in a cup I thought was empty. Overwhelmed by that irrational substance some people call fate and some cynics dismiss as accidental, but whether the moment was destiny or accident: I felt lucky.

In that moment, I doubted if there was truly loss in this world: for any loss I could've endure by prolonging that moment when I thought I was blessed when you smiled.

Too bad, that this moment can be only this and never that, for I can never say this to you in person.

strum, strum...

You dream of her song
And it ends
When you listen to how her words belong
To someone else

You wake as snow falls
On the morning
The dream finally dissolves
Since you realize: she won't hear you calling

As you rise from your bed
You slip while walking out into the hall
The quiet thud reverberates
Marking a dent on the wall

As the house shakes
While rolling down the stairs
Your palm pressing on the floor
Smashing the Christmas tree
Crushing your mom's decor

You wish as she eats her first course
On Christmas morn
She might think of you crushed
With the memory of your face forlorn

When she said how all hope was lost
And the hurt wasn't worth the cost
Since your love was a love for the chase
Doomed to end if she were to reciprocate

So she said goodnight and be happy with this
Take the dream instead of a kiss
And in the future you can place your lips
On a new face
And all the might
Of regret will be erased
And you can lose your mind on a new name
And gamble your heart on a new game

And when you look
How her face resembles someone other
Close your eyes and say it's
Someone you can't remember