Photograph by Andrea Gibson

I wish I was a photograph
tucked into the corners of your wallet
I wish I was a photograph you
carried like a future in your back pocket
I wish I was that face you showed to strangers
when they ask you where you come from I
wish I was that somewhere you come from every time you get there
and when you get there
I wish I that someone who got phone calls and postcards saying
"wish you were here"
I wish you were here

and autumn is the hardest season
the leaves have all fallen and they fell like they were falling
in love with the ground the
trees are naked and lonely
i keep trying to tell them new leaves will come around in the spring
but you can't tell trees those things
they're like me they just
stand there and don't listen
I wish you were here

I've been missing you like crazy
I've been hazy-eyed staring at the bottom of my glass again
thinking of that time when it was so full it was like we were
tapping the moon for moonshine or
sticking straws into the center of the sun
and sipping like icarus would forever kiss the bullets from our guns
I never meant to fire you know
I know you never meant to fire lover I
know we never meant to hurt each other
now the sky clicks from black to blue and
dust looks like a bruise I've been
wrapping one night stands around my body like wedding bands and
none of them fit in the morning they just
slip off my fingers and slip out the door
and all that lingers is the scent of you
I once swore if I threw that scent into a wishing well
all the wishes in the world would come true

do you remember
do you remember that time I told you I've never seen
anything more beautiful than snow
falling in the glow of a street light
electricity
bowing to nature
mind
bowing to heart beat
this is gonna hurt
bowing to I love you
I still love you

like moons love the planets they circle around like
children love recess bells I still hear the sound of you and think of
outcasts who stutter beneath
braces and bruises and acne
are finally learning that their
rich handsome bullies are never going to grow up to be happy
I think of
happy when I think of you

so wherever you are I
hope you're happy
I really do
I hope the stars are kissing your cheeks tonight
I hope you finally found a way to quit smoking I
hope your lungs are open and breathing this life
I hope there's a kite in your hand
that's flying all the way up to Orion and you
still got a thousand yards of string to let out I hope you're smiling
like God is pulling at the corners of your mouth

'cause I might be naked and lonely
shaking branches for bones
but I'm still time zones away
from who I was the day before we met
you were the first mile
where my heart broke a sweat

and I wish you were here
I wish you'd never left
but mostly I wish you well
I wish you my
very
very
best