You Can Look Away

By Ben Bird

Featured art: Brick Wall Motif by unknown

You can look away, but terrible things still happen.

Cover your ears, but screams, and anguish, they always

Break through. You’ll never be ready, even though it always

Comes you’ll never know when. You will always ask why

You will never have an answer you will cry and cry.

Hopefully one day opening your eyes to the world on

A day it chanced to be kind and maybe you’ll see

What the sun can really do to the sky when the

Clouds streak and stretch others bundling up fluffy

Like golden lambs in flight catching reds and violets

Truly painting with light. And yet again

You will cry because you know that beauty

However sublime must fade away into night.

But as your feet tap on brick streets

You’ll look up see the silver moon look down

And see the crowds lining up to get drunk

With their friends. An invaluable treasure,

Social debauchery flooded with laughter

Cigarette smoke and karaoke young couples

Falling in and out of love, some doing so

Quite loudly, others quietly heading home

Separate and alone. Some meeting for the first time

Sparks in their eyes, some excited to go home and get stoned.

You will decide to get a drink

And call up a friend to enjoy the beauty

Of all the opportunities, all the lights, all the laughter

And especially all of the tears.

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Ben Bird (he/him) is a Creative Writing major at Ohio University going into his senior year. He enjoys poetry, animation, and literature is his free time. He hopes to be a published author of literature and poetry in the future.