The Second Alley

Mrs. Craywood

her curls needed cutting

instead she dyed them black

she could have washed her face

but she brushed on dark eye shadow

to hide her eyes

she used to think they were

pretty.

Mrs. Craywood

paid for the brick building squished in the dark alley

with all her cash

and pinned up a sign

PHYSIC

the sign was the only way

to tell the door to her building

from the other dirty black walls.

There was one customer

a week

Mrs. Craywood sat with her cat

by the window

you couldn't see out of

covered in dirt

the rest of the time.

The cat died on summer solstice

and the customers stopped coming at all

and so Ms. Craywood left

and walked down the cobblestones

tripping in her high black heels.

Ms. Craywood knew not

where there was to walk to

but she couldn't stay for anything

it was more about walking away

than to.

She’d never wished

to know her

future

more.

She walked

and her feet hurt

and she walked

and her heels broke

and she walked

and the rain fell

and her tears fell

and her eye shadow fell

her face was covered streaming down

and then the sun came

and her face dried

and it was clear again.

In the distance

there was a rainbow

not the one

that comes after the storm

one painted on a building wall

down an alley

it wasn't dark dirt like her alley

it was bright

red pink purple blue

yellow green orange

and some black too

and people

running in

walking out

smiling laughing talking hugging

and in the middle of it all

PHYSIC

the sign read

PHYSIC her brain whispered

and she walked in.

Theodore Cinnamon

wore a red suit

with a purple tie

his hair slicked back

out of his bright brown eyes

they sparkled at Ms. Craywood

they sparkled at Ms. Craywood's eyes

that sparkled now too

and when she asked for her future

he said

that her eyes sparkled

and that's what she used to think

she remembers now

when she used to know that her eyes sparkled

and she wants to know again.