Girls in the Hallway
Violet Hetherington
Girls in the hallway keep shivering.Â
The air smells like rainÂ
And they are starting to forgetÂ
The way that summer tasted.
She looks down at the ground.
Can you feel the way my heart tears?Â
Girls in the hallway have silent tears.
Willow branches shivering,
Roots twisting through the ground,
Leaves falling like rain.
Remember that long-gone tasteÂ
Of something you forgot.
Girls in the hallway try to forget
Each other’s opal tears,
And that salty way they taste.Â
She keeps giving me the shivers.
Can you kiss me the way rainÂ
Kisses the ground?Â
Girls in the hallway fall to the ground.
They swore they wouldn’t forget,
But that all got washed away by the rain.
It cleans their tears.
It leaves them shivering
With nothing but a sour taste.
Girls in the hallway know the taste
Of blood and the warmth of the ground.
I pull her to her feet and she shivers.
Don’t let me forget
To mend all the tears.
Don’t leave me out in the rain.
Girls in the hallway still feel the rain.
Open your mouth and it tastes
Nothing like tears.
Sit with me on the dusty ground.
I can help you forgetÂ
Those things that keep you shivering.
Â
Girls forget the scrape of the ground.
Stop shivering from the cold of the rain.
That hallway always tasted like tears.