strangers

there are words like water

 and i am drowning because i don't know how to swim.

because i had them all, 

and now i am struck mute.

nothing i say will breach the gap.

nothing i say will matter at all.

i don't speak that language.

we move forward,

and out of the noise comes something i know.

he is whistling.

it's a song.

i smile.
neither of us speak english. not really. i'm bad at talking. he is from somewhere else.
 he leaves, and i know that i'll never see him again.

because that's how this works.

the ride is over, and i pass into the other room.

and the noise comes back again.

sweet and high, over the heads of everyone else.

i look over.
he smiles.

we are not so different after all then.

because that is a language i know,

even if i don't speak it.

xx

it's hot here, babe.