Alexis Besche

Toned In Grayscale

raindressed windows ornamented backdrops last summer

and scarlet changelings foreshadowed autumn

when we’d chase each hour

reveling in our fictional seattle

and making acquaintances with nature

you were so beautiful last year –

a bootlegged masterpiece

staging victory atop monochromatic asphalt

and silver-gilded 323’s,

drowning fingerpick acoustics

in sustained 1980s nostalgia

and you promised we’d return insatiable –

complete with text message re-runs

and definitions through

thriftstore tees and guilty java

when friendship bracelets were

intertwined with truth and

perfectly flawed polaroids

still held value

but somewhere along the way

we gave up –

from old concert tickets

to faded fantasy sharpie autographs,

we’ve colored ourselves grayscale