MASTERPIECES

    Tom took a picture of me on his rooftop

    the Philadelphia skyline blazing behind me

    man’s attempt to rival God’s scenic brilliance

     

     

    Liberty One and Two float in the background

    while Tom’s penthouse apartment from years ago

    rests on my shoulders reminiscing the past

     

    Tom—young and in love, naked in his bathtub

    laughing with John, leaning against him, holding him

    a black and white photograph hanging in his hallway

     

    Captured memories, like the ones Tom passes on to me

    —lost in the snowbanks of a Syracuse winter, he waved

    a flag above his head to be seen by the bus driver

     

    Lost somewhere before the flames of Stonewall ignited

    a conversation, a passion within eventually uttered

    in John, in music, in us watching Shakespeare in the park

     

    And in these newfound friendships, a peace is achieved

    in the recognition that we will never be alone

    that the masterpieces we create to match God

     

    are really manifestations of our love for one another

    of a bond that allows us to conquer the sky

     

    Matty Bennett is a graduate student at Virginia Tech,  pursuing his master of fine arts in creative writing.

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