Hometown Neon Signs

We were sixteen when you had on your sundress
Dancing avidly
Now I watch you stub out your third cigarette 
Through the smoke you can't see me. 

Where along the way did I lose you

To thorns of roses, to blunt snowflakes?

You started reading Poe

Vaping polluted cotton candy.


And we spent the 17th summer in town

I would drag you to the pond 

Far behind the train tracks 

I taught you how to smoke, and

We laughed when you choked. 


The 18th winter I moved out 

Carrying your heavy words

On that Sunday without a cloud

That time you skipped church.


Soon we were twenty

In the middle of New York City

I watch as you lie on the bathroom floor, half naked

Breathing in lines

Dreaming of hometown neon signs.


The numbing warmth, flash over your eyes

A camera shutter of your fifth birthday

I was outside but you didn't call out

And you passed without a sound.


Twenty-five 

A ring I never gave to you

Cleaning out our apartment closet

And found that sundress you wore.


You know, I cried that night

Remembering how much you have changed 

How much you haven't.

I collapsed on the bed fully clothed

Breathing in lines.


In my dreams, the neon signs

Hometown pixelating, colors blurring

Suddenly we were sixteen again, you in your sundress

And I stubbed out my cigarette 

Before you arrived.


We were sixteen when I had on my long-sleeve

I never showed you the scars

I never lit your cigar

You went on to live.



***********











This one was a rather quick write. I think I spent around 20 mins... Inspired by Lời Hứa Năm Em 16, aka the wattpad work I started but never continued (💔)

Last edit: Dec 20th, 2025

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