By Alec West

We met by coincidence,
Pressed against each other by the
Random chance of seating—
Yet separated
By a plastic screen.

The other’s chair
Was supposed to belong to someone else.
Instead, there was a stranger:
A face half-recognized from the past,
And a name pulled from the depths of a memory.

So we sat alone together.
We learned to talk without speaking,
To follow rules neither of us ever knew.
Each day promised a chance to talk—
Though we certainly knew how to lie.

But it’s all gone now.
The plastic screen, the chairs
Fixing us each in one place.
The stranger is gone, too—
Replaced by a familiar face.

Alec West (he/him) ‘28 is a history and  economics (BA) double-major. He started writing poetry in his junior year of high school, and enjoys reading, playing video games, and playing tennis.