Love Mannequin

Love Mannequin

By Thảo Đinh

Tip        toe         tip
       toe         tip
Swing your hips
to the rhythm of 
summer night and rain
Pitter   patter   pitter
                                        patter
Pots and pans clatter
As we swirl into each other

Your dress
Your eyes
Your imaginary voice
Are of glittering azure 
The light of stardust
So far, far away from me

I want you here with me
Are you really here with me?

I once knew you
Your dress
Your eyes
Your voice
Intense obsidian under great pressure
Every word you said

Every song you sang
Sank down my throat and stayed in my heart

Years later
They still stay in my heart

You taught me how to dance
Now I’m the one leading you
Your stiff sharp shoulders silent 
Your right cheek crack and crash
You stare at me with one fake lash

And said nothing

Is there

                          anything

left of me
             of us

If you are, after all
An illusion
A dream
A fantasy
            then…
Pitter   patter   pitter
                                       patter

It’s 5:41 AM 
A kind stranger shields us with a black umbrella
Looking at me questionably
He looks like me.