Our Aegean, my ancient friend

cosmosusieLeave a comment

Does the Aegean Sea know its age?

Each morning it greets me just the same 

Each evening it thrashes and it pulls 

Just to find its calm in the rising sun 

Does it know its audience has shifted?

The dances have multiplied

The festivals no longer honor old deities 

Can the sea tell it’s graced by a different god?

Yet we’re shaped by its waves just as so

We know the change in its mood 

Just by the shade it appears

Just by the white lace of its foam

Its salt and cool nature draw us in more

Fill my hair with your water and dry it out with your salt

I take pleasure in your cold reign 

Leave your lasting remarks upon my skin

A sea we’ve always and yet never understood 

The center of a city yet it waits at the edge

I say goodbye one last time and it kisses my skin

Cold and salty and everything I’ll ever miss 

It will guide me home for the final time this summer

I promise to come back to you, my ancient friend 

where did all of the time go?

cosmosusieLeave a comment

the last four years all end with a grand stage/ all of my beloved papers and books traded for a diploma/ all of my late nights and emptied coffee cups are now behind me/ life moves out of my grasp and onto to the next hurrah

a mantra of green and gold i just began to learn/ it slips through my fingers like sand in the wind/ a social sciences building filled with all of my favorite professors/ their rushing by and last minute grading sings to my ears like a hymn

seventy years of an institution marked by my graduation/ all of its accreditations culminates in a student such as me/ living proof of its reputation surrounds me in the form of my fellow peers/ we’re all saying goodbye to the place where we learned to disagree

the last four years have left my hands stained with ink/ i have learned to navigate the library of congress to DG blind/ ancient wars and maritime commerce wait for me to cross/ just a few more steps before i leave my undergraduate years behind

i’d rather split a bill

cosmosusieLeave a comment

the cold in this beach front south whips me around/ the car jockeys, my hair flies, and the ocean crashes/ i sit safely inside and watch out my window/ from a wooden coffee shop, where the day slowly passes

i sit inside, warm and full of pastry/ french vanilla to sweeten a bitter coffee/ the table piled high with stacks of homework to read/ music lulls in the air to make a dreary day more than it may seem

i sit and remember a different cafe with company/ a friend to share dessert with and make an afternoon lighter/ another with someone so close to me/ with constant coffee refills just to keep you there a bit longer

here i sit by myself with no one around for miles/ i lost one to the north and the other to distance/ i order baklava for one at a table for two/ a singular mug rests next to me with no bills to split

i long for noise despite the music and chatter/ the rain outside offers no companion I’d like/ there’s not much to be said for she who sits alone/ and everything for those with someone in whom to confide

My home away from home

cosmosusieLeave a comment

This place is everything that French vanilla smells like/ it’s sun streaming through the cranberry glass on the windowsill/ it’s the perfumed soaps I look for every visit/ it’s a place frozen in my memory that I know won’t always be still

The foothills that roll from each city to the one with your home/ I could map out this town without any direction/ I’m afraid for the day that I won’t need to navigate it anymore/ for the day that I no longer turn to you for my easy vacations

Childhood memories float from frames hung in the hall/ the postcard on the fridge I wrote to you from afar/ the stuffed animal we’ve been hiding from you for years/ the pool room we spent the last decade washing the dogs in seems so far

I see this place in every mug and it’s coffee grounds/ each antique store I enter I hear your words of advice/ never start a collection, though your china cabinets are filled/ and I see it especially in each roll of my Yahtzee dice

You warned me not to age though it’s inevitable/ I refuse to believe that this place will never not be yours/ for now it’s where I learned to swim and play cards/ a place where love is free and life is pure

here’s to the new year

cosmosusieLeave a comment

i step into the new year wearing the same clothes/ i hold onto the hands of my friends as i go/ i hold onto my love and look back to smile/ and finally i look forward to see how we’ll all grow

i wish you all a year of love and a year of life/ honest friendship and kindness to yourselves/ for me i wish for a seed of faith/ something to root and remain in good health

goodnight and good year to all who browse/ step through to this year with an open soul/ to be better is to change and to find acceptance/ to find a version that is kind and whole

New Yorker

cosmosusieLeave a comment

Each route we have fallen on together/ each step walked beside the river/ late night ice cream runs and firetrucks/ swapping cookie recipes during halloween thrillers

as winter comes, we all say our goodbyes/ the hardest ones come after so much hope/ all of the places we swore we would try/ all of the plans we made as December approached

is the future of friendship based on airport destinations?/ I’ll keep you on my calendar if you do the same/ a shared apartment in the middle of Hyde Park/ Until then, we’re not too far away by plane

my favorite time of the year

cosmosusieLeave a comment

The weather turns and the page counts run high/ nestled in my room, a candle drips/ books rustle, countless chapters stacking up/ my window shows the evidence of fall as summer eclipses

the melodies slow down to a soft sway/ mornings cool and evenings come soon/ colds run rampant as the weather turns/ old reruns and dogeared books under the moon

the smell of ink and the burn of hot tea/ an old sweater with holes you meant to fix/ a bed cozied in the corner of your room/ the soft yellow haze of a fall full of treats and tricks

happy birthday to me :)

cosmosusieLeave a comment

A pile of shoes sit by the front door/ fingerprints layer on the window glass/ a fridge covered in pictures and notes/ a kitchen filled with people and laughs

sisters to throw your birthday parties/ brothers to tease about their trucks/ a freezer filled with ice cream/ a kitchen table that somehow always has crumbs

i love you all like i love apple pie/ my heart is happy and stomach is full/ i count my blessings each time i come home/ each one of you that makes me whole

a summer of friends

cosmosusieLeave a comment

a summer of sand clinging to your legs/ a new friendship to keep you company/ experimental recipes and new hobbies to be found/ a summer of long lost and well spent money

when you close your eyes, who do you picture?/ i see people i love, people i don’t know/ a night under a fort of blankets/ a day in the rain with the friends i chose

i send letters in the mail to those I miss/ a collection of scraps and memories from the best of days/ Happiness is not fleeting, but a moment to recall on/ a series of long car rides and sitting among waves

a summer i will miss and long for when it passes/ friendships that will stay even when the weather turns/ trading a day of sunshine for a night by the fire/ i wonder how i’ve deserved such a world

lonely friendships

cosmosusieLeave a comment

what are friendships if not uneven?/ why are the closest always the furthest away?/ the simplicity of connection is overruled for greed/ you want to leave, so i beg you to stay

loneliness is being the third person there/ it’s sitting alone, surrounded by people/ second-guessing your role in the conversation/ telling yourself the quiet is more peaceful

i offer too much that i don’t want to give away/ i extend my hand for the sake of niceties/ you take it too far and won’t let me go/ i make myself bitter in an attempt to please

i have no tangible evidence for any of this/ i’m perfect on paper, i’m well aware/ i have it all, what else could i need?/ but when i look around, there’s no one else there