I am not crying.
But it is raining outside.
And I thought maybe this is heaven's way of saving me from tears.
My sadness came in droplets sliding slowly off a glass window.
But I am sure as hell glad it did not hail down on me like a storm.

just as the dates
flew by
we came down to our last
goodbye

My afternoons have been spent listening to her
And her mind-numbing jazz, the trumpets
and the trombones, the bass guitar and the piano.
I'm almost tone deaf but, god, I could feel her soul
through her songs. She has caught me
like how liquor stared back at me
with her golden stare
As the ice begins to sweat.

After school she would teach me
How to handle her instruments:
The soprano, the alto and the tenor.
The former, we would practice often at her whim;
Her favorite sax which even with a few notes,
she'd ask me to play with her.

In her own words, "You have to imagine"
"Making love to your instrument."
"Imagine me", she said.
And for the first time I heard her play
Pink panther off key.