A Man Named New York
What if he leaves
What if one day he packs his suitcase
And walks out the door
I would floored
The cement dripping down my chest onto the hardwood
With broken plates scattered around me like a garden
Flowers from the fight
The light over the counter
It’s all planted in my head
Growing like weeds
Vines in my hair and all down my arms
What if he leaves
Kisses me on the cheek and turns away
Fading into the rain
I’m left standing on the sidewalk
Remembering that none of them ever stay
Just me and my red raincoat in the blue city
Slipping into a yellow taxi to take me back to an empty apartment
The big apple took a big bite out of me
Sweet, red rotted fruit when you left your key
What if he leaves
What if he left it all behind
The kisses, the fights, the wonderfully wasted time
He was the thread sewn through the skyscrapers
Holding me together
He used to be put the city that never sleeps to bed
But I’m forever awake in Manhattan
A man named New York bustling in my head.
Violet Binczewski is a sophomore at Mount Saint Joseph Academy. She is a published author, releasing a book of poetry in 2024 titled “The Ocean and Her Shadows” with Vanguard Press. She won the Patriot’s Pen Essay competition locally in 2019, and her work has been published in Notre Dame’s Preparatory School’s The Hampton Review, as well as Mount Saint Joseph Academy’s The Muse. She is also an editor of The Campanile, the student-generated news site of Mount Saint Joseph Academy. She lives in North Wales, PA with her family, and when she is not writing, she is usually reading or listening to Taylor Swift.