At my expense

My imagination takes me to dark places in the world
I’m too stubborn to run away
And I know nobody will come with me
I rid of all my expectations

You said love and beauty cannot coexist with analysis
But you don’t know the things I think of you
When you swim laps and I admire you
Luxury like a dripping rose
God can’t help me

I put your Cubs cap back on
And search for defects in you
Because it cannot be true
I’m banging my head, I’m so sick of you
I like you

Secrecy and solitude
Come kiss me in the closet
Try on your best white button-down
You teach me how to tie a tie
I keep getting it wrong because I’m weak

Saturdays with you
Watching how much your cat adores you
She’s practically floored by you
There must be something about you
I look away

I know it’s irrational
For me to open myself up to love again

So I keep practicing how to tie a tie
So one day I can kiss you goodbye

Passenger seat

I’m a small girl with a matchbox
A ticket to heaven
Leaving at eleven
Behind the curtains the children hide
I ask them what’s so fancy behind there

I walk home from the library
Hardcovers feel like survivorship
I’m dividing my eyes into pentagons
I still hear your song on the radio
Switch the television up to max vol

I’m by the lake, bow in my hair
The deer come closer like they love me
On my notepad I scratch his name out
Over and over again
I thought we could at least be friends

I’m passenger seat and you’re in the back
Glimmer in your eye thinking of paradise
You knew where you were going that night
You swore to me we’d be all right
It hurt like you threw the softest bricks

I’m passenger seat and you’re in the back
It hurt like you threw the softest bricks
Your book still lays untouched on my bed
Untouched as can be
Untouched as desolate me

The loudest silence when I found out
When I found out