literature

cigarettes and sinking ships.

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t-writes-poems's avatar
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Literature Text

I’m on a sinking ship, she says.

There are oceans of opportunity out there, they say.

But I never learned to swim, she says. And I’m already drowning.

She sits cross-legged in the overgrown grass, smoothing her black sundress over her thighs (over and over again) and flicking the ashes off the end of her cigarette (over and over again). They watch her through sideways glances.

I don’t smoke, she reassures them, exhaling one last time and grinding the butt of the cigarette into the dirt. They nod and offer her another. Without hesitation, she takes it and lights it up.

A long silence follows, chilling the April air. Then she begins to speak of him, more to herself than to them. She says how it snowed the day they met and how he held her hand and how she couldn’t eat or sleep for a week. How he told her she was beautiful and kissed her like he meant it (over and over again) and how she finally believed in something she could touch and hold and love. How they used to whisper to each other until sunrise, counting the stars in the city sky (over and over again). How she had asked him to dance (over and over again) but he was always so afraid. How they fought over the most insignificant of things and how she swore every word was her last, and then how she crawled back into his bed and into his arms and fell in love again (over and over again). How they were like some kind of blazing wildfire –

You’ve got a phone call, they interrupt her.

She sighs heavily, snuffing out her cigarette and picking up the phone.

Hi, she says.

How are you feeling? he asks.

I don’t know, she answers, picking her lighter off the ground and flicking its flame on and off, on and off.

At least we’re in the same boat, he says.

At least we’re in the same boat, she echoes.
wrote this for my writing fiction class.
(isn't that cute?)
© 2013 - 2024 t-writes-poems
Comments5
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QuirkyCuriousBex's avatar
Lovely. I think you made the right choice going with no quotation marks. It made the piece more fluid.