"converge" by Ilana Drake

the way that she looks

in both directions as

she boards the c train,

as she focuses her eyes

on the people around her,

hoping to see the girl

she met in elementary

school on the same

subway car

two young women who

live in separate boroughs

with separate schedules

who will meet on the train

they planned the times

of the c train schedule

and practiced the places

their feet would step in

order to be on the same

car and see the same

images out of the window

the subway car became

reserved for stale croissants

which were half off at the

closest deli and the words

those women said were

written in their journals

shared pens instead of

phones and images from

their words instead of

photos

solitude together. converge.

Ilana Drake is nineteen years old and is a sophomore at Vanderbilt University. She is a student activist and writer, and she was appointed to be a 2022-2023 Global Goals Ambassador by the United Nations. Ilana's work has appeared in Ms. Magazine, PBS NewsHour, and The Tennessean. Her poetry has been seen in multiple magazines including Bright Lite, Flare Journal, and Same Faces Collective among others (https://ilanadrake.wixsite.com/mysite/projects). When she is not writing, she can be found listening to '90s country songs, researching used book shops, and promoting inclusion.