my emptiness is you. you in all your forms mentally emotionally psychologically, and yes, physically. my emptiness is the size and the shape of your heart and it beats rhythmically against my skin every pulse whispering your name. i walk in silence feeling the heat of the streetlights on my head reflecting your face onto the store windows that stare at me from across the street. yes, i realize how late it is but i'm walking until i find a solution to this space inside of me that sits and waits and beats and whispers. do i miss you? no. i do miss whatever it is that used to fill this place next to my lungs which heave and expand and contract with every breath. my emptiness is black or maybe just a darker shade of grey and it bears an uncanny

resemblance to the exact color of your eyes smoke colored except that right now my frame of mind colors them more like stone or granite. perhaps this is bitter. perhaps i don't care i don't have the time to care all i do anymore is wonder and my friends have let me go because i never was what they needed and i never will be but you needed me or maybe you needed what i symbolized. i remember how you used to take everything as a compliment and somehow i know if you knew i was walking so far because of you you would be flattered. so i just want you to know if you ever do find out why i left the house at three am that it isn't about you and i don't miss you and this is not a compliment and you are not perfect and i will never be whole again. Robin Prentiss, gr. 9