Citadel Mornings, Sài Gòn Winter

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Sunrise mist, citadel summer
Think I wanna love you forever
Know it's stupid, teenage foolish
But your butterflies are like no other's.

Sunny side up
pretty face down
Just as much as a waterfall
You veered your car to the library's back lot
How much youth we've got, the skies would know.

Whipped cream on my lips
Wiped it down, you tasted like strawberries
Citadel Hill stands unblinking
Shuffled, red cotton gingham. 

The clock struck two hours past ten
You flew in just to swear we're just friends
Are we really?
Behind the closed libraries
After shared sugar cookies?

You have that glow of siesta days
I've nothing but coquettish daze.
So pack our touches
Book a plane to L.A
Before you're back to Sài Gòn, you'd say.

One year later, Notre Dame winter
Bến Thành sung its blistering blues
Sài Gòn's never cold with us
So we loved like our time was due.

Stayed up past two a.m
On the frozen floor, your touch warm
Then Bitexco's helipad I saw
and sixty-eight of its floor,
From inside our window
my soul shook, you tried to gnaw. 

It has never been so hot before
Again, strawberries, cream, a locked door
I was sure we were more than friends now
But you simply clenched your jaw.

T3 terminal
I never saw you again
Can't forget that look
When I confessed to you at Highlands.

Citadel autumn
Leaves have begun to fall
I no longer remember your name
Perhaps only I was to blame.

You cried at Landmark 81
at me, "I just want to be friends"
You're a beautiful liar, now my tentative stranger
And our youth, still it stays
in that Sài Gòn winter.

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Last edit: May 17th, 2025

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