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.