Broken Bricks and Broken Glass

Eyes grow heavier and shut, taking me to a back garden never before seen,
Where people gather to tear apart a mound made of small bricks,
Only to replace them with bigger blocks, burying something unspoken;
Concrete grates and smashes, earth breaks and smoothes,
Hands cut and blister, backs ache with the constant bending and lifting,
As people who have never said a word to one another before now unite in this task,
To break and rebuild a monument for one man’s parents;
A tractor clumsily drives forward over the remains of the mound,
People stop through fatigue and cut corners, hoping to save time and effort,
Broken glass appears to the dismay of the man,
Who recognises them as the treasured heirlooms,
Buried beneath bricks in the hope of preserving a legacy hundreds of years old,
A legacy the man hoped to protect and reinforce with bigger blocks,
A legacy now survived by one clear glass box amidst shattered scratched shards;
Myself, my best friend and his ex-lover are there, breaking bricks and placing blocks,
Former classmates who have seen battles colossal, with myself at the periphery,
And they at the frontlines on opposing sides, jealousy and lies their weapons of destruction,
Peacekeeping mine;
Here, in this back garden of broken bricks and spirits, they are reunited,
Reigniting a relationship that has moved both heaven and hell for better and for worse,
Even though I know he has fallen for someone else and she has had a serious fling,
Both fell so hard and their feelings are still so strong that this situation does not make sense,
Nothing here makes sense;
And we work on this monument, smashing each brick to expose its foundations,
When she comes to me, one drink too many on her tongue,
Our eyes meeting, and a strange feeling of lust and longing erupts in our stomachs’ pits,
A feeling that has never materialised before now and has not materialised since,
A desire to take her here amongst the bricks, earth and glass,
Amongst the people and beside him, my best friend;
But we do not even kiss, because I could never betray him,
Yet that traitorous gaze and those traitorous thoughts were enough to break our friendship,
As she ran to him and told him about “the moment she wanted to happen but is glad it didn’t”,
And he screams “TRAITOR!” so loud that everyone stares,
Leaving me to explain that nothing had happened and that nothing ever would;
But he stops me and says “never again”, accepting my click but not returning it,
And I end up at my bedroom, acknowledging that this is all a dream,
Telling myself that this is a dream and that dreams are not real,
Getting into bed while hoping beyond hope that this is a dream,
That my eyes will open and none of this will have happened,
Logic reassures me, yet the horrible fear grips my stomach that this is all real,
I get into bed just wanting to wake up.