Excerpt from Everybody Plays The Fool
"It was like, her soul passed through mine and carefully collected all the contents that would help her learn how to love." I sat up at attention as his voice began to fill up the room. His voice was deep and thick and laced with twinges of the east coast. I found myself wrapped up in the intensity of his eyes and warmed by the richness of his voice. "And eventually she replaced those missing things with compliments and affection, making me feel new with the anticipation of things to come; wondering when I would reap the benefits of this infatuation that has built up between us. Letting the anxiety build as the signals remain mixed and the comments lay fixed on our tongues layered with the flavors of the inability to be honest." I continued to stare as he stood before me seemingly humble and shy. His hands were jammed into his pockets and his eyes scanned the darkness that loomed before him. I leaned up further in my seat wrapped up in his words. "As the gazes rose above the crown of my heart, the confusion climbed to a new level each time that we would connect, yet the connection remained strong as the attitudes flew off lips and the feelings became intermixed with this, inability to be honest." "Skye,' I whispered, 'Girl, I think I'm in love." Skye glanced at me and then back at the talk dark skinned man who was reciting his poem on the small stage that was a few feet in front of us. She whispered something back to me, but I turned slightly from her and became so engrossed in what he was saying, that I completely missed what she said. His words poured out like hot chocolate and I was desperate for a sip."
"Despite our attempts to tap-dance around the ideas that are clear to everyone except the key players in this game, there is an unspoken love that grows from an irritation, both caught in a vicious cycle of coming and going, smilin' and frontin', while the questions dangle above us like pregnant clouds ready to birth drops of knowledge onto our heads, as if God himself is tired of this denial and is concocting ways to wake us from our stubborn stupor and cause us to take steps out of this inability to be honest…” “Each affirmation that rolls off my tongue carries the weight of the world and falls out of my mouth just before it plummets to the ground, taking up residence with my dead hopes for the truth and as each word falls, it hardens and transforms into a brick causing this inevitable wall to build up between us. I closed my eyes for a brief second and envisioned him talking and a brick falling out of his mouth and a wall beginning to build. That was deep. I opened my eyes again and was surprised to find him staring directly into my eyes. Or so I thought. The stage was so dark, it was impossible for him to see into the crowd, but for a moment, I pretended that it was just him and me alone in this dark space and he was reciting poetry as I ran my fingers through the thickness of his locks and… “And I realize that the longer I talked, the higher the wall became because you were unable to find the anecdote to end this destructive construction, but there are no words to be said because I can no longer see you but rather the backside of this wall which causes me to be quiet and reflect on why I crave you the way I do..” His lip curled up again as his eyes seemed to refocus on me as he spoke of this woman he craved. I felt my body heat begin to rise as we continued in our silent exchange of glances and smiles.
“But yet, I can hear you collecting the pieces of my soul that I mistakenly left vulnerable in your care. And I realize that you have so much to learn, and you have no idea what to do with these fragments and I am left again to wonder and reflect on our inability to be honest. Peace Y’all.”
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