Venice Beach Boardwalk

One thing I’ve noticed about myself is my ability to fall in love with strangers. It’s not the soulmate kind of love where I believe we’re actually going to fall in love with each other, get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. It’s a kind of love where I just keep thinking about this person I truly know nothing about. As a writer, they become a muse and I usually turn them into a poem. The first time I can vividly remember this happening was when I was 18, on a trip to Los Angeles with my friends after graduating high school. He was a poet that sat on his skateboard, writing poems for $2 on a typewriter on the Venice Beach boardwalk. I gave him my $2, he gave me my poem, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. After leaving, I was walking behind my friends when words just started pouring into my head. So, I took out my phone and wrote them down before they had disappeared. This is what I wrote.

To the boy on the boardwalk,

whose fingers

dance

on typewriter keys

and whose heart

bleeds poetry…

I pray your fingers

dance

forever

and your heart

bleeds

for eternity.

I often think about this weird love for strangers and how some people will truly never know that I’ve turned them into poetry.