Seven days of circular arguments
      Six days of taunt anxiety
              Five days of happy remembering
                      Four days of bitter worries
                              Three days of attempted calm
                                       Two days of waiting to speak
                                              One day of rampant surprise
                                                   Amazing how fast the days go by
                                                         Twenty-eight days in one little week
                                                            ­   I'm so exhausted I can barely think!

I don't know how this came to be
How I forgot myself in your eyes
Something happened after I left that day
That made all of the good things vanish
Or is this my illusion?

You said you cared and I believed
What is wrong with me?!
How could I forget who you really are
So fickle and indecisive
Unable to face up to what you feel
Though what it is I'm not entirely sure
That you even know

I listened to you, even after you were gone
I listened so hard that I changed
I understood things I hadn't before
I grew up
Every day I would hear your voice
Chastising, lecturing
And still you were right
About everything
So I changed, and I learned, and I listened.

Then you couldn't let me go
I was content to smile at you
To talk to you
To be friends once more
But then you kissed me
And all of that easy complacency
Was out the door
It was wild, and it was fun
And I'd never take it back
Because no matter what you say
I know how you feel
Even if you won't admit it

I listened to the words you said
And the ones that you didn't
I listened when you would start to speak
And I listened when there was silence
I have been listening to you
Because you asked me to
But I didn't change for you
I changed for me
To be happier, brighter, bubbly
To find myself again
To do it I had to listen
And you were right, all along
Why can't you see that?
I changed, and I learned, and I listened.

Didn't you hear me?
I LISTENED

I go up
the down escalator
When no one is looking
I ride the elevator down
But walk up the stairs
With jazz hands

When it rains
Puddles are
A particular favorite
I don't bother to resist
And giggle madly
as I jump

When I get to my desk
In the cubicle maze
I happily do my work
While photos of my past
Taped in a formless collage
Are all around me

I could not conceive
Of building a future
Where the smiles of the past
Are forgotten
In the blur of necessity
Nothing is so important
As those smiles

So I play with my food
And draw outside the lines
I always talk to children
Trying to see through their eyes
Because I know
When they see the world
It looks so different from mine