MAKE THE CUT

by Yerica Hannah Ramos

It was one breezy afternoon bus ride when my friend and I came across an old friend. The sudden mutual gaze and exchange of smiles that starts a conversation left me with a feeling unforgettable in a lifetime. Have you ever felt it?

That you ’ re a friend to everyone but you ’ re that kind of friend who’s always cut off the line of the friends they would invite on a special occasion or remember on a special day. On that day, my heart ached so much that I cried through the bus window as the wind blew by, as if to comfort my cordial spirit by wiping the tears away. Today, all it left was a scar that serves as a continual reminder to me to cultivate relationships with the understanding that the majority of individuals will not make that cut.

While I wait for my branches to thrive, new leaves, you found yourself the shade mine can't provide.

I am just a tree with leaves that come and go— can't compete against an attractive flowering plant.

I don't bloom a flower, and my leaves take a long time to shoot.

Funny, but I always feared one day you'd pick a flower then rest under the shade of my tree once my leaves grow.

by Jimuel C. Sagario