The highest price

people brush past me and bump into me

everyone in a rush

everyone in a hurry

 

all these people with their own stories

even if i spent my entire lifetime,

it’s not possible to know them all

 

so we capture the ones we can

we hold them in our soft palms

we promise to be gentle

 

the trouble comes when we push ours into unyielding fists

we hope that one day they will want it

but that hoping drains the heart

 

it leaks her until she is empty

and we wonder what we have bought

with this high price

 

and we realize we were paying for something

that the seller never agreed to sell

 

so they drink the juice of your heart

and shrug and kick you out of their shop

 

“i never asked you to do that”

they say

 

and yet they accept the payment

as you leave empty-handed