one day he will find someone who stands a little straighter
and doesn't leave hair in the shower drain.
someone who lights up his world like a shooting star in a sky of standstills.
and he won't even think of the girl he passed in the hallways once or twice,
silently begging him to love her.

his birthday is tomorrow
and I wish that I could give him a present
that would make him light up
like I do when I imagine him saying my name.

most days, I walk around with my head on completely straight;
remembering all of the mundane things that I have to do before bed:
study for your history test, do your laundry, call your mother.
but then I see a boy who looks a little too much
like you did when you were seventeen
or a car that looks like the one that you drove
home from soccer practice junior year.
and all of the sudden, I don't have any clean socks
and my mother is worried because she hasn't
heard from me in a few days.
I think that's the worst part of being in love only sometimes.

on that cold and rainy night
amidst delayed flights and the six strings on your guitar,
you told me that you got a concussion from playing soccer
a little too rough in my hometown
and how you couldn't wait to get drunk with your grandmother
on Thanksgiving.
you enjoyed going through the security line at the airport
because you "loved looking at your **** in boxes."
how did you and I end up coming from and going to the same place
without finding each other in between?