Two Truths and a Lie

2Q19

In her short 21 years of life

she had never before seen someone try jump off a bridge

It wasn’t even a tall bridge

over a not so busy road in the middle of jungle suburbia

A middle-aged couple held on to the young woman for dear life

They struggled over the blooming railing flowers

before collapsing onto the pebbled concrete

no longer in the mood to repeat the feat again

It’s not nice to walk past a scene without voicing condolences

She approached the ruckus like a fly drawn to something rotten

and the couple left the human husk with her

ridding themselves of the liability they involuntarily picked up

Alone with this young woman, her curiosity peeked through concerned eyes

I had stumbled on good luck

Individuals are more profitable than couples

But this one looked younger than the usual customers

And I was ready to make her pay

First, a good night’s meal

Subway was a 10-minute walk away

Enough time to gage whether she was akami, chutoro or otoro

As I sharpened my knife to cut through her mistrust

She fidgeted with her manicured hands across the table

As I finessed my pointed backstory between her clammed palms

Gradually unfazed by my unwashed hair and gritty fingernails

She readily made conversation to learn about my misfortunes

Bluefin tuna with white-collar dressing never looked so delicious

You were the David to my documentary on the Lion City

Before I only knew the roar of the metropolis

but you showed me beneath the lion’s paw

the hidden grass that struggled to grow with no sunlight

And you were a blade

whose father habitually skinny-dipped with loan sharks

yet you dreamt of saving the world through starting a store for reusable sarangs

How had the burden of our survival fallen on those with less?

You were my fated reality check

And perhaps I was the reason your eyes saw a dream again

We chatted as strangers who met not on the side of a bridge but a crossroad

and I squeezed two hundred bills into your hands before we parted our ways

I could only hope with all my heart it would be enough