Walking Past Marcus Garvey Park (May, ’13)

I remember the day I walked past Marcus Garvey Park

It was the latter part of winter 2013,

A day just like this,

Me hunched in my jacket, braving the cold wind

Lonesome in a foreign country

No one besides you by my side

Asking me what are we going to do:

The landlord didn’t want to hear from us anymore,

We were a week from being destitute and lost

It was too soon to blow and return home

So, what was I going to do?

I asked you the same too

But you turned away from me

Sullen and lost to your thoughts

As was I, with no tears to cry

I tried to keep our hopes alive—

We’d tried, you and I—against all expectations

Though we failed, but there’s honor in failure, right?

You didn’t answer,

Maybe you didn’t want to, no matter how hard

I begged you to speak

You simply kept on walking

As I did too, with you.