gulp

She sits and I stare, 

my headphones don't cancel noise

and she knows, so she says

"You're useless, a disgrace, a black spot in my life,"

I blink, consider rolling my eyes, why would I not?

I am the bad guy, the rampant teen. 

"Your heart is selfish at its core, you hurt others, 

hell, you can only use others for your own benefit,

if it were up to you, you'd use your own brother, 

so here's the truth and hear it clearly - you're shit."

I blink again, so nonchalant. 

There is a brief silence. I say "Well, go on. Isn't there more?"

"O Lord, if you hear me, never let anyone have anybody like her

in their lives, no matter what the have done."

She turns to me and says,

"Yes, you're nothing but a curse

to anyone whose life you're in,

you're in my life only because

in my past life, I must have committed a hundred sins."

I blink. Make my eyes devoid and look right at hers, 

which brim with hatred and disgust. 

As she looks away, I silently gulp,

and push down the block in my throat. 

aunty

She was sitting on the bench near the hollow tree, 

where squirrels rarely do come. I asked her if she was okay, 

she told me she was fine so I asked her again because that's the rule:

fine the first and honesty the second.

She told me it was nice of me to ask, she asked if I wanted 

to be burdened by the problems of a woman who will attain half a century

in less than a decade, and I applied in the affirmative. 

She began, and it broke my heart more by listening 

than it fixed hers by sharing. 

"My brother, oh, I raised him like my own child, 

though our ages fell not even 5 years apart, 

he was my son, because I raised him.

I betrayed him once by letting go of him 

while he bicycled for the first time, and the second time

when I pushed him too fast to make him skate.

I taught him everything I learned,

then I gave him my good habits, my cubes, my morals

my books, my toys;

but as he arrived to a certain age, my friend, 

he started spitting fire at me. 

His words hurt me the way nobody had ever:

the first boy who broke my heart. 

And now look, he's there and I'm here. 

I live in pain each day, for I never meant for us to part."