They'll pay a penny for my thoughts,
I'd pay a dollar if they'd keep them.
I could sell them by the pound,

I can promise I don't need them.

I'd put each thought in a box,
And each box on a shelf.
And I wouldn't take them down,

Til' they belonged to someone else.

A penny for your thoughts,
Or I'd be glad to trade.
If you had a dream of sunshine,

And you longed for one of shade.

A penny for your thoughts,
How much for memories?
I'll only take the light ones,

The ones that fall like leaves

I would hold each one so softly,
Til' they were stolen by the breeze.
Then I'd sit and stare for hours,

While your thoughts blew through the trees.

I imagine they'd be beautiful,
A thought in every hue,
From a time of love all dressed in red,

To a time more present, blue.

My thoughts aren't worth a penny,
But I would gladly pay for yours.
My thoughts aren't worth a penny,

My thoughts are merely chores.

I'll lock the door when I go,
Don't say, "don't forget me"
You know that I won't.
I know you won't let me.

I'll lock the door when I go,
Once I've boxed my belongings,
I'll pack up my heavy,
My sorrow, my longings.

I'll lock the door when I go,
But I'm leaving behind,
Every last promise,
The best parts of my mind.

I'll lock the door when I go,
To forbid other's entry,
Though I know they'll come knocking,
I do hope that it's gently.

I'll lock the door when I go,
But I'll leave you the key,
I'll lock the door when I go,
To keep you from me.

I want you to know that I miss you.
I want you to know that I have heated the coldest corners of my mind,
So you would have a warm place to sleep.

I want you to know that my heart still clings to your now wide-open palms,
my chest tightens when you pray.

I feel weak in the knees at the thought of you.
So much so that it gets hard to move

Sometimes

I stop dead, wondering.

I hope that you don't think of me.
(I hope that you do)
I hope that you know what you've done.
(I hope I never let you)

That we don't speak is deafening.
That I don't scream, a wish.

Sometimes I worry that my thoughts will grow so loud and desperate that you'll hear them.
It's loud inside my head.

But now,
even my words are whispers
lost somewhere between my lips and a million
gray
miles.

I could have said those words a thousand times a day
I could have screamed them at the top of my lungs

I could have dropped them at your feet between my knees
Until the the words wrapped the city surrounding us
Like a present.

But you still would not have known how much I meant
"I love you."

It felt like we had been driving for hours,
Because we had been.
I kept my eyes focused on the horizon
That only seemed far because we were chasing after daylight,
like time.
I could feel her next to me,
The way I always did.
Still,
like a rabbit caught by a farmer with a pitchfork.
It was always too late for flight,
how often, though, you fled.

My body felt heavy next to hers,
Too present for the occasion.
I moved.
She sighed.
I stopped.
Her sigh landed on my buckling shoulders
And made itself comfortable.

On the other side of her window
Colors dripped from the sky
Into so beautiful a mess,
It could not possibly last.

I thought,
Quietly as I could,
As she watched the colors collapse onto each other,
until the darkness chased away
the last echo of the sunset.

Fixated yet forlorn,
The way I stare at clocks
And calendars.
Minutes and days collapsing onto each other like fire,
on the burning desert sand.
Only to be chased away,
By a farmer with a pitchfork
In his ticking hands.

You were jovial,
Effortlessly happy and
Forever wanting.
I was Christmas morning,
A time so covered in lights and bows
That even darkness gets gift-wrapped.
It hides behind frames
Made empty by time
And beneath the hats of red-clad  alcoholics
Making empty promises
To wide-eyed little strangers who swear...
They've been extra good this year.

A reprieve so emotive
That it could only ever be temporary.
Like the love for that toy you begged for for months
And only played with for five minutes.

A memory so fond it hurts.
Thrown into the back of your mind
With all the other lost toys.