I’ve always wanted to go to Romania, since a good friend of mine is from there, but I’ve never had the chance until recently: I traveled to Edinburgh via Bucharest. The flights from Bucharest were much cheaper than the ones from Sofia and I, mistakenly, thought it would be just as easy since the airport was the same distance from my home.
On this trip I had about ten exhausted hours to explore Bucharest and make it to the airport on time for my flight. This poem is what came from it.
Koji
One Day Stand (to Bucharest)
I enter you
while darkness masks your features.
Hundreds of bowed faces
shift to hint at people I’ve known.
Her smile.
His nose.
I want to run through your streets
chasing ghosts.
Your money feels cheap.
Fake.
It slips between my fingers.
Slick.
In the first dishwater drips of dawn
your curves entice
an ache for familiarity.
I wish I had known you for you.
I stare unfocused
unseeing.
I let you become undefined
splashes of color.
