Her Stardust Eyes

falling hard and fast wasn’t in the plans—

certainly not for him, not with his fast track

to greater and greater heights in college—

but he hadn’t anticipated every party

dragging him down lower and lower

even as he sought to make connections

in a world built on acquaintance bonds.

but she was different—as these things go—

because she stood apart from the crowds

and laughed at everyone else for being

just the same fools as their parents were,

though she was honestly no different, really,

with her trust fund and devil-may-care ways

that seemed hollow at the end of the day.

falling in love with her was different too—

or so he tried to tell himself as he followed

her every waking whim through the semesters

even while she played with thoughts of running

off to Paris or Milan, anything to piss off her dad

whom she talked about at great lengths

with pride and envy and even some spite.

but he wasn’t in her plans either, he realized

when she really did take off on her jet-setting

and backpacking across Europe with her friends,

people he had never met or seen on social media,

as if she had lived a different life under his nose—

or perhaps he wasn’t a part of her world after all,

just a nuisance who took good photos with her.

falling into her her gaze, gold flecks gleaming,

had been its own kind of trick as he imagined

ways to kiss her and smother her with his love,

yet now he knew he had been building a life

with her without even asking her opinion,

all the while she planned her trips without him and

fell out of his life just as easily as she had stepped in.