Symbol Chasers

Passed by 50 first/last dates

Unfolding inside a Yelp-approved cafe

Where $40 of good intentions

Couldn’t compensate for mismatched priorities.

Women are anxious they’ll have to end up with someone,

Men are anxious they never will

Circumventing each other

For fear of premature success or prolonged failure.

Many a what-did-I-say-wrong William

With a loose definition of PTSD

Wandered back to the place of rejection

Hoping for some kind of closure.

Food is only as good as what it reminds you of

And therefore only as sad,

Which meant pure William and his pure intentions

Left as empty as when he came in.

Watch any person from 50 feet up

And you’ll realize they all are shaped roughly the same,

Stick figures chasing symbols

Of what they’ve heard, they’re supposed to want.