Books I Read in Highschool

I read a book with

hell as sprawl

like suburbs or

Houston expanding

like space and everyone

moved further and further away

they complained

about public transit

there were no conversations

except self-talk

arguments about neighbors

who lived out-of-sight

and I thought it was clever

and creative but

now I have coffee dates

scheduled a month in advance

with college friends

who will be moving soon to

states with reasonable

property values to

buy homes and

have kids whose names

I’ll forget with faces

seen occasionally

on screens flickering

in a dark but affordable

studio apartment that
isn’t a metaphor.