Last Train
by Yun-Fei Wang
and as the last train approached the station,
i thought i saw her in the blur of people--
chipped nail polish and a leather watch,
bubblegum lipstick smeared by city lights
beneath the ground, time slipped away
the only sky was the depths of her eyes
i thought i saw her in a ripped-up dress
champagne gold the station almost felt real
in the first life my thoughts were wild
believing you were paradise on earth
and i could only dream of a world where
underneath velvet white veils your smile
stays, even when you know i obsess
over the sugary gleam of your lipstick
and how your eyes enchant skies into
ombre sunsets in a colorless world
you made me believe in heaven
hologrammed by your pastel voice
before your ring with his initials and
a date years ago scratched me when
your fingers laid against my skin
a crescent scar that would never heal
and now i feel your touch on me
haunted, even when i'm sober
my fingernails dug into my train ticket,
locations unknown, without a time of arrival.
through misted windows i saw her silhouette
light blended into darkness i couldn’t breathe
the back of her hand pressed against the window,
her head slumped restless in her palm unmoving;
firm, slender fingers entangled with waves of
soft black hair scattered on her stiff shoulders;
in the last life i needed you most
but all i was left with was silence
of late nights lost in empty bottles
once overflowed with your soft voice
echoing the melancholy of loneliness
sounded like glass panes shattering
until your name suffocated every star
but for you i’d take all my last breaths
as blades sharpen blood on my skin
drowning in pain from your soft glances
the lines of colors you’d never read
every lifetime wishing i could be yours
i reached to grasp for one last chance
to only be devoured by hollow darkness
never thought i’d see you in this world
and now i’m at the edge of insanity
in the crests and valleys of her chiseled clavicle
i found the faded answers to endless moments of
all these lives and the coldness i’d suffocate for.
on the station display was no longer today’s date
and now the air entangled with blood, i held back
my tormented heart from boarding onto the train
the ticket slipped from my fingers onto the tracks,
just as her last train drifted away from time--
i thought i saw her in the blur of people--
chipped nail polish and a leather watch,
bubblegum lipstick smeared by city lights
beneath the ground, time slipped away
the only sky was the depths of her eyes
i thought i saw her in a ripped-up dress
champagne gold the station almost felt real
in the first life my thoughts were wild
believing you were paradise on earth
and i could only dream of a world where
underneath velvet white veils your smile
stays, even when you know i obsess
over the sugary gleam of your lipstick
and how your eyes enchant skies into
ombre sunsets in a colorless world
you made me believe in heaven
hologrammed by your pastel voice
before your ring with his initials and
a date years ago scratched me when
your fingers laid against my skin
a crescent scar that would never heal
and now i feel your touch on me
haunted, even when i'm sober
my fingernails dug into my train ticket,
locations unknown, without a time of arrival.
through misted windows i saw her silhouette
light blended into darkness i couldn’t breathe
the back of her hand pressed against the window,
her head slumped restless in her palm unmoving;
firm, slender fingers entangled with waves of
soft black hair scattered on her stiff shoulders;
in the last life i needed you most
but all i was left with was silence
of late nights lost in empty bottles
once overflowed with your soft voice
echoing the melancholy of loneliness
sounded like glass panes shattering
until your name suffocated every star
but for you i’d take all my last breaths
as blades sharpen blood on my skin
drowning in pain from your soft glances
the lines of colors you’d never read
every lifetime wishing i could be yours
i reached to grasp for one last chance
to only be devoured by hollow darkness
never thought i’d see you in this world
and now i’m at the edge of insanity
in the crests and valleys of her chiseled clavicle
i found the faded answers to endless moments of
all these lives and the coldness i’d suffocate for.
on the station display was no longer today’s date
and now the air entangled with blood, i held back
my tormented heart from boarding onto the train
the ticket slipped from my fingers onto the tracks,
just as her last train drifted away from time--
Yun-Fei Wang is a fifteen-year-old from the little-known country of Taiwan. She is an aspiring writer who is reaching beyond the business-and-engineering centered stereotypes of east Asian society. Her prior writing experiences solely come from online classes outside of school, and they have changed her life.