Yasmin the Light

I tried my best to focus on the show

knowing she was only a feet away

somewhere in the ballroom.

And I wanted to ask her what she thought

but she was already hanging out with

someone she’d met on Tinder

just a revolving door

of first dates

instead of really dealing with whatever she was going through.

I wanted to still be friends

wanted even to pick things back up after a bit of space

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to see anyone else

but I was interested in the possibility of sleeping with other women

for a short spell.

I didn’t know what that meant

and wasn’t sure how to tell her

that I felt like I was suffocating

and that my life was moving in the wrong direction

if any direction at all.

ANd worst of all, I was homesick,

longing for a place that I wasn’t sure ever existed.

I felt , anchored to mediocrity, rudderless

and sometimes being with her only 

reminded me of everything else

that I wasn’t doing.

But I was open to trying it again

if she could just get her head straight.

If I didn’t have to drag her away from her comforts.

No one was rooting harder for her to do it than me.

But these were all feelings that I didn’t have words for.

But seeing how lost she looked

only brought those feelings home

when the band started playing Yasmine the Light.

It was already too late, but neither of us knew it yet.

~Bob E. Freeman

Tags: Bob E. Freeman, Explosions in the Sky, Yasmin the Light