there was a circle. it lasted for about a year, maybe more, maybe less. i wouldn’t say you had to be there to see it; i would just say that you can’t see it anymore. because it isn’t anymore. it was, but now it is not. isn’t.
there was a circle here. you couldn’t tell by looking at it because there isn’t much to look at. maybe there never was. but what i remember is
there was a circle here and. and maybe you don’t remember it the way i do, or what happened afterward. i don’t understand what happened afterward - that which broke the circle. but the circle broke, confident and quiet over the course of months, thru separation and reunion, crossing state lines and pouring ugly out into the hot streets like tar all full of stench and anxiety but by then it was too late. have you seen what we are now? have you seen where the circle was?
i don’t think it broke due to malice, or even through intention, though again i don’t know for sure. i try not to point my finger because i know there is nothing to point at. this natural course that things take. littered with bodies of the still-living who still walk by my side, though we don’t speak.
there was a circle here and whatever happened next is still a mystery to me. i still walk along the old avenues where a thousand memories were once carved like etchings in stone, slowly being erased. i usually don’t see you and i usually don’t look for you.
there was a circle here once. you wouldn’t believe that now though.
published in bullshit lit anthology #2