The cynics are happy to tell you
True love is a myth from fairy tales
It doesn’t exist in this world’s reality
Love will not conquer all, no soul mates
Make your compromises and find a match
Find someone just good enough to work
True love is for suckers and romantics

You made them all look like skeptical fools
You proved the one I could always rely on
You saw in me the beauty not the beast
You were my best friend through it all
The rock in which I based my strength
The one rocking in the chair next to me
And I’ll love you until my last breath

Hey you forgot to close the blinds again
You have to know the distance isn’t far
I can see right through with the lights on
And now you are getting ready for bed

Who takes a shower this late at night
And no, I’m not sitting at the window for you
I am an accidental viewer taking in a show
I swear I’m not a creep, just right place right time

How fast do I have to look away embarrassed
To still be considered a mannerly gentleman
And not some disgusting ******, enjoying it
But to be honest, you look too good to stop

It was always a long shot anyway

Just a couple of broken hearts

Looking for shelter in the storm

Maybe just a story on a week away?



Sure the late night talks were great

But what do we know about each other?

It’s just a burning passion keeping us up

And passion is just fleeting fancy, right?



Trading songs which say it much better

Asking questions like a high school pair

What I did learn is we are opposites

What is it they say about them attracting?



Yeah, it will all go down in flames

What are the chances of such a thing?

This is a just a bunch of kindling

Waiting on the first spark to send it up



Because we can’t possibly make it, right?

No matter how long I imagine it

We can’t be those stories that make you cry

Of beating all those odds, can we?

A fleeting feeling like a shallow stab
An invasive insight I’m forced to grasp

Because if I miss you I start anew
Facing a nascent nightmare to see through

What if I miss you today and can’t stop
What if this sheer climb has no mountaintop

I missed you today and didn’t dare voice it
Because silence from you would be poison

Envelopment of cold darkness
Empty atmosphere enclosing
Falling deeper into the void
Desperate for a sign of light
For comfort of an end to the end
Extinguishing eternal non-existence
Please God let there be God

This place is too big
Since you left here

The light is dimmer
Music a lull

Eternal winter
Without a cure

This is my promise
Come back to me

I’ll be by the door
When you come home

It ended the best it could
No anger, no vitriol passed
Tears and gratitude between
Longing looks, deep sighs

The space is all I can give
Allow for bated breaths
Pains deep in the chest
Feeling the loneliness

You’ll never really be alone
As long as I breathe on earth
Someone in your corner
Whether you see me or not

The demons need facing
Overcome by strength
I know you have in spades
They don’t stand a chance

And now I’ll need to do
The hardest thing for me
Let go, have faith you return
When you’re ready

I made the mistake of falling in love
And not taking a hint it was over
My friends tell me to get over it
She told you she didn’t love you
There’s nothing left for you to do
But what I felt was real and new
Piercing through my skepticism

So why do I keep holding on?
There’s a ***** little secret I keep
The truth is this is where I want to be
Wallowing in the warmth of self-pity
Telling myself my pain means something
That I am a knight on an epic quest
For the one that I love in this fairy tale

Life is not the epic romance I make it to be
It is cold and lonely and you get left behind
I will persevere beyond all reason
Because in the dark, when I pray
The words keep coming to me the same
Stay the course, stay the course
Even if the voice is merely my own

The night will be long, thoughts multiply

Did he hold the door? Pay for everything?

Did he call her beautiful? Did he mean it?

Is he kissing her the way he kisses me?

Does she make his heart beat faster like me?

Will he whisper in her ear like he does to me?

Does he say the things that make me crazy?

Did she claw at his back like I always do?

Did they stare into each other’s eyes during?

Did he hold her close to his chest after?

Did he like it? Did he think of me at all?

A wound like a long-lost friend
Not present but never truly gone
Invisible to all but me at all times
Deeper than a knife to my heart

I never want it to close or heal
A reminder of that which is lost
A connection taken from me
To a port in life’s terrible storm

I hate this ******* empty feeling
That I can’t be truly whole again
Piece of me permanently dead
That used to make me feel so alive

I felt you over my shoulder
As I made her dinner tonight
Your sadness was palpable
As if you still have that right

She told me she loved me tonight
I instinctively said I love you too
I didn’t say who I meant when I did
If it was her name it wouldn’t be true

I saw you staring back at me
Lying next to me lying next to her
Your judgment left me cold
Feeling like a cheating, indecent, cur

Why did you leave me here
If you weren’t going to go
Why did you walk out the door
And leave a piece of your soul

I sent her home for the last time
My exorcism of you postponed
If I can’t have you my love
I’ll have to settle for your ghost

Sure, you didn’t mean to at first, per your poems

But you certainly meant everything you did since then

The way you learned me inside and out over time

Looking into the darkest and brightest spots of me



It must be exhausting keeping those boundaries

I’m a broken fire hydrant spewing romantic platitudes

Yet I know you want all these poems to be about you

You want to be here as much as I want you here



I have seen into you and I can’t, won’t look away

You don’t need a pedestal and you don’t need pity

You aren’t perfect but you’re also not defective

Life takes time to put the right one in your path



I’m not sure I know what this all means these days

I know that I am happy when I am holding you tight

You’re a beautiful secret I wish I didn’t have to keep

But you’ll never be alone as long as you’ll have me

I’m supposed to be wallowing in my loss and pity

Not writing longing poems like a lovesick puppy

Don’t run off and take anything seriously, I’m told

I pretend the others have just as much hold as you



What a ridiculous sight I must make of myself

You’re feet underneath me, reading Victorian novels

And I know when you say you’re not saying something

You’re really saying everything I ever wanted to hear



We’re not supposed to have a song or trade furtive looks

Late night conversations like a couple of teenagers

Just a couple of polar opposites who are charged magnets

Don’t bother asking if I want you to, it’s always yes



I’m not going to pine for you to text anymore (that’s a lie)

I’m not going to write anymore poems about you (that’s a lie)

I’m not going to crave when you open up to me (that’s a lie)

I’m not going to pretend this is just no strings fun (not a lie)



You’ve made me into the cliché of a man starting over

Who isn’t supposed to care about what you think and feel

I’m just another of the number enchanted by a muse

And I can't wait to see what you make of me next