Destinations unknown

 

They say your memories play back

when your life is hanging by a thread,

mine dragged me on journeys.

Like a paperback

left open on the first page for all to read.

A quick shift of scene, dropped feet first

into a bus station universe, leading

to all the places I’ve been.

 

Surprisingly, only a handful

of buzzing vehicles, churning the air.

The rumble of their engines

not as deafening as others may hear.

For, in distance alone, or in

actual journeys taken,

the destinations are quite few.

But the stories.

 

Oh, the stories.

 

The stories are here

by the metric tonne.

Every passenger…

Me.

A different part of my story,

bustling through the station,

and the sound rushes me.

A chorus of emotions pushing to be heard.

 

One that walks with hair painted blue,

I smell the aftershave on his skin,

I see the smile in his eyes, but I see through

the laughter inside, through the mask he wears.

Still so young and carefree, he portrays,

but his heart is talking of solitude,

a statue covered in a paper bag,

and I weep at the memory.

Another moment crashes into me,

staggering through on unsteady feet,

escaping by hiding his face in a bottle,

I want to shake him, wake him to see

what will follow.

 

In the corner on the dirty ground

another memory is crying loud,

I want to put my arms around him

and say, “It will be okay, keep believing

in dreams, they do come true.

I’ve seen your dreams, and I’ve met them too.”

 

Another me dances by as if a flowers swaying

with no one there to witness his bloom.

And one that sits pen in hand watching.

Smile in his eyes. Scratching lines.

 

Then there are the destinations of love,

the beauty that has glowed so bright

The soaring flight of a heartbeat's rise.

The memories of eyes that held mine

as we passionately kissed, and the ones

where I blinked and missed. Now, that

bus has left but others sit awaiting a ticket.

 

Buses to other remembered hearts,

blare out reversing alarms, jolting me

back to earth with a crash.

Some of them broke my heart,

others shone a light in the dark,

but each story,

every destination,

every journey led me here.

 

With a world open for me,

if I just step into my destiny.

 

So, I jump on board any bus I can find,

for each journey is a unique part of my life

and I am here for the ride.