I wrote this about three years ago. On one of my arduous commutes of four hours one way, each week to go to work. The lonely trip, the buses, the skytrain, the dragging suitcases across gravel everywhere. I’ve gone through about ten suitcases in a couple of years. I wrote this about a girl who was my best friend and co-worker, when I realized how toxic our love and friendship was. We were addicted, like lovers. In all the rightfully wrong ways. Running to the phone desperately when the other would text message. Spending all day everyday together. Being apart was painful.

There is a punch to the gut even reading this poem after the years have passed, because the person you once were, is forever gone. Growing pains, hey?

Perhaps you can relate to a time in your life, or maybe right now. Can be a friend, a spouse, an ex. I was reminded of a favourite movie of a mine, Coraline, for some inspiration of this poem. I used to call her Pika, because she was cute to me, like pikachu. I was Kirby, pink, angry, and adorable.

Pika

Glutton of milk and honey

Her gaze sewed shut

Insatiable thirst leads her

Hatred and pain

She walks alone

Burdened and chained

White angels in her bloodstream

Her phantom friends

Comfort the spirit

Her true companions

Sliced with a smile

Pathway of narrow space

Fit for the queen of solitude

The mind, repulsed by gratitude

Leaks currency

Every step she takes

Sewing her gaze more shut

Every step she takes

She runs out of space

Every step we take together

She steps on me

Every body she steps on

Everybody does it, 

She says.

I watch her continue to sew

Breaks a needle

Finds another

Breaks a needle

She breaks needles

I stop following

She keeps sewing

How far away is she now?

I shall never seek to find out