Random Access Memories 2023


in this summer

this moment here 

I see myself alone for the first time

my body pressed against the cusp of the world




i let go at the top

and for a moment

it’s my body

weightless 

the ocean is upside down in my vision

the world inverted 

your shoes in water

you throw your head back

and laugh




I’m privileged enough to think I can do something revolutionary

and I feel so guilty

for the pressure I put on you

to do something I think is meaningful

when

paying your rent is more than enough




My hands on my steering wheel, tires on fresh pavement

A hundred and twelve when I pass you on the freeway.

Eleven o three when you text me a link.




pretty girls

in big sweatshirts

the way just after the sun sets light reflects off everything 

the ocean

the buildings

the trees

the asphalt




if all i can have is

moments of you, running down the street, looking back at me

if all i can hold is your hand

phone up for directions as you drive




In city blackness I reach for you

just tipsy enough that I want you to dance with me

under a sky of stars

that are really just windows

stretching into the sky




against you

as if this infinity is perfect 

as if we have it all figured out

and I’ll leave school 

and get an apartment in downtown

and curl up at the end of the day cradled under skyscrapers




taunt muscles 

over shoulders 

the way light fades before the sun stops hitting the mountains

the leaves, just barely orange

the stove

the map




on days like today I wish I was not a romantic

and on days like tomorrow ill fall in love with the leaves and the pop of the toaster and the way my keys feel in my hand

but when you sit across the table from me,

and look at me with those eyes and that smile and your hands on silverware

I’ll wish I wasn’t a romantic a thousand times over




she looks at me

“every person that ally bell is friends with is going to change the world”



I do not have to know where we are going

I only have to know

That I love you

And in this moment 

I will run into nothing