Epilogues like Epitaphs

Once upon a vapid day in
a town full of glazed-eyed murmurs
ultimately amounting to nothing, she
met a boy who said he'd calculated the
probabilities of wishes and knew what it felt like
to breathe a dream. He told her he'd write
her the world, he'd tell of the promises the
oceans kept and the way the stars never
quite compared to her eyes

but he lied.
And she figured love fancied
narcissism the same way she believed herself
deliquescent. (because we're always looking
for the prettiest ways to say we're
dying inside.)

Then on a broken night that tasted of
lucid intoxication and blind reminiscing,
she met a boy built of big words
whose heart sounded authentic [enough],
and when he called her beautiful,
she really believed him.

that is, until the wind stole him away
in the form of a pretty girl who meant
more and was worth less. She
concluded that love feared dying alone
(just as much as she did) and

maybe it wasn't such a travesty to succumb
and let substantiality crash over you. Maybe
giving up was some romantic stand and some day
a pure entity of matching ideals would come and
make her remember why she wasted every prayer
on someone who would look at her and find her
truly perfect.

But waiting never warranted anything, and as she
fell in synch with a gray-scale world, she learned
one last poignant point-

Love would never love
her.