cell phone tower

Note: A possible college essay. What do you guys think? (Double spaced it's actually a little over a page and a quarter.)


The mountain tops loomed over Elsie as she sobbed quietly inside her hands. Before her, a boundless tower stood where her yard had been, where her heart had been, and through her tears, for a moment, she could almost see the tall, flowing grass, here, the chrysanthemums and daffodils, and here, an overgrown pathway. But when the tears’ flowing abruptly stopped, all that remained was an endless pillar, a concrete mass of humanity’s progress. The top was now blocking the two-o-clock sun, and the heat of the day sent shivers down her spine. Elsie shuttered as she remembered leaving, and gasped a suppression of a sob.
Inside of her, something broke. Elsie turned to walk away.

The mountains of her foundation were still there, as she traversed the valley below, the valley of the shadow of death, remembering not to fear for He was with her. Of course the mountains were still there. Who could move mountains? The yard is gone, Elsie remembered. So? She and her family had been the only inhabitants, anyways. Well, aside from the chipmunks and squirrels, rivers and rocks. She laughed as she remembered skipping over the stepping stones of a stream that had wound around her cottage. She’d had a life. She’d had dreams and feelings and a future that would hum in harmony with God’s will. Flitting in sync with nature’s glory.
Now all Elsie had was a tower, a tower of Babel that threatened, not to reach God, but to be God. As she looked back, it loomed forebodingly in the two-o-clock sky, falling further and further behind her quickening feet. The clouds made the moment look like day had passed to night already, and Elsie knew the summer storm would come soon enough. When it did, she’d accept her fate, though the tower, a tower of communication, and knowledge, and bridges spanning worlds, would stand forever. Humans had played God, defying obstacles and washing nature into a thing of the past. The tower would stand even as the storm crashed over its concrete structure. Even as the yellow excavators destroyed the cottages. The tower would stand even as they moved the mountains.
And as she heard the equipment rumbling in the distance, she sat on the ground to wait for the lightning to strike.

the strings on your guitar

note: a song

I held you
I smelled your scent
on my fingers
I bring you, to the edge of everything
I whisper that it's gonna be okay

In my head
We had it all
Even though I
knew we'd fall

In my head
I cannot say goodbye
But every time I see you
I cry

I watch you
from this place afar
You are laughing, as you finger
the strings on your guitar

And I see you
slowly turn your head
You are looking
at her face
listening to what she said

But in my head
we have it all
You're laughing with me now
Playing me a song

In my head
I'll never say goodbye
But everytimg I see you
I cry

It's the end of today
And I cannot turn away
I'm looking at the back of your head
again

The end of today, and I
quickly turn away, and for
a moment
you stare
at me

And you're wondering
Why I'm not breathing

Oh, it's not like I have to tell you
But if I don't
I couldn't compel you
Is there a point to being silent, being lonely?
Just because I'm scared
to be, not to be
only me

let's see

I held you
I smelled your scent
on my fingers
I bring you, to the edge of everything
I whisper that it's gonna be okay

And I can see my breath,
quickening,
inside of myself.
And I can feel my heart beat faster
Cuz I know
It's you I'm after

It's the end of today, and I
cannot turn away
I'm looking at the back of your head
again

The end of today, and I'm
Ashamed to say, that I
Cannot think of anything, but you

That everytime I want to be alone
I think of you,
And when I wanna sleep and dream again
All I see is you
And everytime I want to be alone
You're always there
Just beyond my gaze
At the end of my stare

It's the end of today,
and I cannot turn away, and I'm
looking at the back of your head
again.

if I could always lay with you

I'm not crying
Laying here
I'm stuck
And yet I'm free

The last time I saw you
you were lying here with me

Our heads
were looking up
The sky had clouds,
but few

I was wondering to myself
If I could always lay with you

Your warm smile
softened me
Your red lips
were dry

Even as I saw you near,
even as they brushed my eyes

But last time
you were here
Was the last time
that I cried

I thought maybe it was just
Rain falling from the sky

but it was me,
the broken me
a symphony of misery
the me that used to cry

the me that was okay with hope
And didn't want to die