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Michelle Mo, Canada

do you remember what it felt like to be together? staring at the sky (end of may / early june / october nights / beneath the moon) while we blabbered on and on about (podcasts and cool projects that we’d make / your new obsession with indie punk rock / everything except for what we really wanted to say)

you said you’d escape (the city / your father / this wretched misery ) and i said (don’t go, please / we’re almost free / take me with you)

where are you? i’m lost in (my mind, labyrinth of the loons / a hall of infinite mirrors, endless reflection / the woods, just like old summers) and i wish you were here, to hold a compass in one hand and my frozen fingers in the other; who am i to navigate this wilderness alone?

remember when we sprinted across campus with (textbooks and papers spilling out of our bags / snowballs that you’d hide behind your back / your go-to coffee order ⁠— one cream, two sugars)

and now i can’t quite recall (inside jokes / your face / why i love you) but i know there must be a reason i still hold on to you ⁠— please don’t let this fade like (muddy springs every year / hours spent in hallways after school / our names scratched into the brick wall)

my head is heavy with (the ghost of you / an unbearable truth) and my heart is empty except for (memories of february fridays / forgotten futures / all the Moments i’ve ever spent ⁠— and will never again spend ⁠— with you)