Temporary

Can't you stay a few days? You're just what I need Ben, because I - I have a fine position here, but I - well Dad left when I was such a baby and I never had the chance to talk to him and I still feel - kind of temporary about myself. Willy Loman, Death of a Salesman.

She stands a little ways away
looking in through the window
always on the outside
looking in.

I live a borrowed life, she says,
Unresolved, temporary
on someone else's time
floating over heads
like a thought
dismissed.

And she wonders
what it's like to breathe
to feel her chords vibrate
and words carry over the emptiness
filling the space between.

And she wonders
what it's like to occupy space
solid in this wooden chair
in this anonymous bar
full of people
empty of dreams.

And she wonders
what it's like
to have more weight
than a passing shadow.

Forever on the outside
looking in
she'll never know.