Due Tomorrow?

From the very start, we were doomed.

Star crossed lovers on a messy sheet of bad math and eraser streaks

We weren’t meant to last.

We ignored all the signs and we blacked out our expiration date

with a Sharpie and tried to keep going

Driving along the coastline,

Giving ourselves completely to the sea and surf

We kept thinking

“There is so much ocean. This could never possibly end.”

It was like

The relief of hitting the snooze button on the alarm

or like

Knowing there’s a paper due tomorrow but there’s so much more important things to do today

Like the careless teenagers we are

We roamed the streets on a Halloween when we knew classes

Would resume in a mere 3 hours

I think

We thought we could beat the timer.

As if the sands of time didn’t apply to us because

Look at all that beach left to discover.

I’m left holding ice on a hot day:

It feels great in my hand but it’s melting so quickly.

I can’t save every drop.

Rushing into the amusement park an hour before the gates shut

Because, c’mon, let’s face it

We can get to every ride before it closes!

There’s so much shoreline left.

We were the bad choices you make

Even though you were acutely aware

Of the consequences to come.

Look into my eyes,

We’ll face those outcomes together.

But like how Sunday has an impending presence looming over

This time bomb of a relationship was reaching its end

Monday was coming soon

And we’d ignite.

Our alarm told us that we were an hour late for work and we got promptly fired

The teacher wouldn’t accept our rough draft and we should expect an email to our parents

We fell asleep in class and got sick from all the candy and the roller coasters in such a small time.

My hand is holding a small puddle and I let it slip

just

like

that.

Finally the road ended for us

And the beaches stopped at a jagged cliff

You, my love,

my August in a finite Summer

Let’s sleep a little earlier tonight.

We have class tomorrow.

Alexander Dang is an aspiring poet from Portland, Oregon. He has four things in common with Hamlet: Words, words, words, and an affinity for stabbing curtains. In August 2013, he and three others represented Oregon at the National Poetry Slam. He currently attends the University of Oregon.

Copyright © 2012 by Alexander Dang















