The Waiting Girl - @h.r.words

'The Waiting Girl' is part of a poetic trilogy published on the Instagram account @h.r.words which won the highly commended prize at the 2020 South Yorkshire Young Writer's Competition.

The Waiting Girl

I waited for you,

whilst the rain drummed so heavily on my skin

that I couldn’t help but take it personally,

alone on the side of a brown-bricked street,

where we said we’d meet.

I waited for you

for an hour and a half,

until the raindrops on my skin began to freeze with disappointment,

trapping me in their glassy mould,

the statue of naivety.

People came to see me

from far and wide,

and wondered who had chiselled my lips so perfectly into that saddened frown,

paid so much attention to the detail in my wrinkled brow

that it looked almost more than real.

Students sat on wobbly benches and sketched my form,

in awe at the perfect placement of the stone cold tears,

caught,

carved onto the grey denim of my shoulder which once was blue.

Still,

I waited for you.

They pictured me in tourist magazines,

come and see: ‘The waiting girl’ by artist anon - free

to children, the elderly,

and any man who feels the need to apologise to her.

Even then,

with my eyes hidden half shut behind a stoney glaze,

I waited expectantly for you.

Surprise - you never came.