one last dance

Sitting on a wooden bench

Under the crepe ribbons

Drunk with envy

A wayward plan unfurls in my head:

Yes, yes, yes.

Watching all the couples

Twirl beneath the lights

Spin-top pairs

I wonder

Will it ever be my turn?

Tormented,

The weight of my future actions

Laying on my chest

Tulle pools.

I rise

With a shake,

And make my way to the middle of the gym floor

Where the red lines

Intersect

The blue lines intersect.

Their thoughts hang in the air

Choking my every breath

Their voices, their glares, their hatred

It rolls through the crowd

While they binge on each other

On easy-going youth

The rest of us are left with nothing

I am left with nothing

Starving on the wooden benches in the corner

It just isn't right

Everything they were handed

Gifted fairy tales

I was denied

Doomed from the start

My words sear

We have nothing

I have nothing

While you have everything

Don’t you remember what they taught us in kindergarten

Share, share, share?

Or did you choose to forget

Like you chose to forget my name

Once we reached middle school

Like how

You pretended you didn't know me

When you saw me in the hallway

You were everything to me

My protector, my pretender

And you just ignored me like I meant nothing

Purple silk

Hair-spray curls

Her glossy lips blubber just a little

Just enough for me to see

The crowd

Stills

Pausing

Encroaching

The conclusion of my plan hollows my thoughts

What if I fail?

But the circle

Ringing around me

Signals me to try anyways