Negative Space

Negative space
Is a term that always sounds pretentious,
Much like the word "pretentious"
And people who use it,
Especially in writing
Where you can't dumb it down as easily
With a "ya know?" Or a "or whatever the word is."

But what I wanted to say was something about a place
Being so familiar that it blends into the background
Like Compton sirens,
So that you no longer search for the feeling
You had as a child when you crossed the street
At that one certain spot on your way to get a slurpee,
But instead you search for a feeling of the time
When you still could remember that feeling,
Seeing if there's still an echo of the echo, or something like that

And then feeling guilty for searching at all in the dusty past,
When maybe, just maybe, you can still make new echoes
Now,
Small ones yes, but for starters you realize you've been bicycling
Surrounded by migrating monarch butterflies,
Which seems like it should be worth remembering

 I had had the answer and it had made people mad
 So I started walking west.

And when I got out west I met a Presbyterian boy
Jaded since age 8

We made love, and the answer lost its crispness.

Later, I was run over

By a born again Christian who would leave her cell phone at home
When we spent time together.

And it was barely visible,

I shook hands with a bright-eyed Pakistani man and
Questions overshadowed

And I wondered

What story to start now that
My old thread was spent.

An alien who both forgot his mission

and

Burned his means of return.