Kris Tan (EmptyCityBooks.com -MTCT)

America More Than Goals and Apple Pie One for the plane and one for the sky
One for the goal and one for the pie
One for the stories people all buy
And one for the moment they quietly ask why They came with maps and marvelous myths
Suitcases stuffed with secondhand scripts
Opened the zipper and out it all flew
Turns out the country had notes of its own too One asked politely
Where does the Dream stay A lady smiled softly Everywhere and someday One asked for apple pie warm from the tray Three people gave answers
Then argued all day One came for football and football appeared
Then football appeared and football appeared
One said which football They answered Exactly And everybody laughed because meaning is weird One searched for a country in one single street
Another found kindness in somebody’s seat
One measured a nation by buildings and height
Then remembered stars look tiny in daylight Tickety talk and clickety clack
Quick little judgments came running right back
Funny how certainty packs very light
And gets left behind somewhere mid flight Big cups
Big roads
Big dreams
Big claims Yet every front door
Quietly looks the same A place to rest A meal to share Someone hoping Someone there One judged the traffic Traffic stood still A stranger shrugged Nobody outruns life’s hills One traveler whispered This is not what I knew The city replied That makes two Because places are living
And people are too Round and around went whistles and wheels
Countries are seasons not highlight reels
Goals can be counted But people cannot That was the lesson Or maybe the start Because every hometown
Looks ordinary inside Until somebody visits
And notices the light The bakery you ignore The park you pass through The things that became invisible Because they belonged to you Funny how crossing an ocean one day Can teach you to notice
What never moved away Not every stranger is a lesson Not every lesson is grand Sometimes understanding Looks like accepting You cannot hold a whole place Inside one hand So borrow perspectives Instead of conclusions Trade quick opinions For quiet observations For the farthest a traveler may ever roam Is not crossing a border But learning to see Someone else’s home And returning with gentler eyes to their own One for the plane
One for goodbye
One for the goal And one for the pie

Heat Waves Still Playing in the Air Late night glow from a cracked phone screen Same old track on a soft repeat Didn’t mean to press play, it just slipped through Funny how sound knows what to undo City breathes in a humid tone Streetlights flicker like they’re not alone I tell myself it’s just background noise But it learns my silence, steals my voice I lower the sound, but it climbs back in Like it never forgot where I’ve been And I swear it’s nothing, just air and tone But it feels like I’m not alone Heat waves still playing in the air tonight Drifting through shadows in neon light Every beat pulls a version of me I thought I buried so quietly I act like it’s random, just radio flame But every drop knows how to say the same name Heat waves still playing in the air… and I swear It remembers what I won’t share Same convenience store fluorescent hum Same corner where the memories come I turn away like it’s nothing at all But the song hits harder in the bathroom stall Somewhere a speaker in a passing car Spills out echoes of what we are Not a face, not a voice, not a sign, Just a melody out of time I change the station, it finds the thread Like it lives somewhere in my head And I laugh it off, but I still feel Something too real to be real Heat waves still playing in the air tonight Drifting through shadows in neon light Every beat pulls a version of me I thought I buried so quietly I act like it’s random, just radio flame But every drop knows how to say the same name Heat waves still playing in the air… and I swear It remembers what I won’t share Maybe it’s just the summer heat Or the echo trapped in the street But why does the sound feel sharp and slow Like somewhere I used to go? It’s only a song, that’s what I say But it doesn’t fade when I look away Heat waves still playing in the air tonight Soft repetition in fading light Every wave pulls me under again To a place that won’t pretend I don’t say a word, but it answers back In the space between every track Heat waves still playing in the air… still there… still hidden there… hidden there… Still hidden there… Like a hidden hunger I want to share