toile étoile
BIO
Jose Oseguera is an LA-based writer of poetry, short fiction and literary nonfiction. Having grown up in a diverse urban environment, Jose has always been interested in the people and places around him, and the stories that each of these has to share; those that often go untold.
His writing has been featured in Meat for Tea, Sky Island Journal, Jelly Bucket, The Inquisitive Eater, and The Main Street Rag. His work has also been nominated for the 'Best of the Net' award and the 'Pushcart Prize.'
Tell me
again,
The
thought you thought
I thought
of you.
How we
would’ve been happier
If we
hadn’t met each other;
If you
hadn’t looked at me
The way
you did,
And I’d
not replied with my eyes
Looking
away before you did.
Had I
stared for longer
Would it
have made you turn away first?
I
would’ve won that exchange,
Feeling
like you weren’t strong enough
To be
worth pursuing.
But you
didn’t and neither did I.
It’s not
the fall that breaks glass,
But the
weight of its contents
Crashing
down against gravity and hard floor.
Had we
been honest
About the
future or lack of it—
People
tend to be the nicest
Right
before they disappoint you—
The first
couple of bounces
After the
drop would’ve hurt
But not
as much as how
We
ignored their vibrations—
Growing
ripe as fruit:
The
fissures were invisible,
As clear
as seeing life
Through
spiderwebs.
It
doesn’t matter how fast
Things
get, people are slow—
Soaking
in the ghost
Of what
we never were—
As the
cracking we could
No longer
cringe away.
Falling
for each other
Didn’t break
us:
It was
all the shit
We put in
whatever
We
decided to call
Whatever
it was we had
That
destroyed
Whatever
it was
We could’ve been.