Laughter Lingers
The Circle City is quiet,
snow swallows the usual soundtrack
of tires hissing, buses whistling,
homeless men muttering
to war the memorials.
I keep walking, hands buried deep,
collar turned up, and then I see them—
a man and woman huddled at the bus stop,
stealing kisses between clouds of breath,
laughing like the world isn’t breaking
a little more every day.
It’s not the kind of love you find in books,
not the grand, tragic kind, just
warmth against the cold.
I tell myself I don’t care,
that I don’t miss that feeling,
but the snow keeps falling,
and their laughter lingers
long after I’m gone.
Old Crow, Old Flame
Half-buried in the snow and gutter slush,
a plastic bottle of Old Crow
stares up at me like a memory.
Cheap whiskey, cheaper nights—
back when love was all cigarette breath,
barroom fights, and stale sheet mornings.
You used to drink it straight,
said it burned just right,
like all things worth feeling.
We swore we’d make it,
but life has a way of sobering you up
when you least expect it.
Now, I stand on a cold sidewalk,
staring at an empty bottle and wonder
where you are and if you remember me.
Falling
It happens fast, falling.
One misstep or moment of carelessness,
and gravity takes over.
No time to think,
just the rush, the impact,
the unforgiving embrace of the ground.
Love’s no different.
Feet planted, heart guarded
and then someone smiles,
tilts their head just right, or laughs,
and suddenly, you’re weightless,
plunging in heart first.
Both leave you breathless and aching.
You your own stupidity.
Your how predictability.
But you brush it off eventually,
and you know you’ll do it again.
*****
Wade Thiel lives in Indianapolis, IN, and received a degree in Creative Writing from the University of Indianapolis. His journalism has appeared in Outdoor Life Magazine, Money, RV Magazine, Web Bike World, Good Car Bad Car, and other publications. His fiction and poetry have appeared in Etchings, Tipton Poetry Review, Polk Street Review, Little Blue Marble, The Good Men Project, and elsewhere. In 2024, a collection of his work called “Moments” was published as a Stripes Literary Magazine chapbook.
