The first thing I professed was not the warm feeling I had whenever I saw her Nor was it that it was I who had sent her flowers And signed it "your admirer”
The first thing I admitted Was my fear That everything I touched broke
I remember what you did, Just like it was yesterday.
Your eyes brimmed with tears, And you smiled a sad smile. I smiled back. - The first time we were together It was at your house You showed me your dearly loved piano And played me my favorite song “Clair de Lune”
Wringing the keys dry of passion I remember thinking If I poured my soul out like you had Maybe, Just maybe, you’d fall for me.
You showed me The spines of books you read countlessly Finger fluttering over every title, Tracing each word Like I would your stomach Each night you spent in my bed You told me that I “was like the ocean.” I didn’t know what that meant at the time. - Moon Moon moon moon moon The word I engraved in your ribs every time I touched you. Moon My moon. My lovely moon with sky blue eyes, That never stopped moving.
I wish you could stare at me like I had you Maybe you could have seen That every moment I spent My gaze was on yours. But perhaps it was better that way.
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I was bitter. You told me not to be. and so I wasn’t
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Christmas Eve I came over for dinner And I bought your mother chocolates In hopes she would learn to savor you Like the box she held in her hand.
I never told you how jealous I was That you had your mother Despite her flaws
That night I saw you cry for the first time. When I held you in my arms You shook because of your father. You asked me why god would do this to you.
I had no answer Other than “I don’t know.”
I should’ve told you How I had wished I was in your place That I would take the pain for you. But I didn’t. I know you never would have wanted it that way. - When your birthday came I gave you a jadestone bracelet I had crafted myself I did not tell you the time I took, Or what it had cost. I had hoped you would treasure it Like I to you. - A month ago I saw my loving jade On your best friend’s wrist.
I did not tell you how much that had hurt. - You gravitated towards him And grew closer with others I drifted Oh like the sea - That March I went to California to see my ma. I don’t recall if I told you That every night I watched that sun sink into the coast. And it reminded me The way your hand held mine.
When I came back you spoke of nothing but sadness I tried endlessly To tie a knot in that poison-filled vein. But the sickness spread. I wish I could’ve been your cure.
You were sand slipping between my fingers And I did not know how to tell you That my waves had lost purpose If there was no shore. Come Back -
“Captain O’ Captain, The eye of the sea Was the bottom of her heart.”
- Summer had come We had spent one tired night watching fields of fireflies At 1:49 am
I couldn’t find words To tell you my heart had danced Like every one of those little lights When someone even breathed your name. I wish I had Summer had gone
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When fall had struck You left me.
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My thoughts clammered in disbelief
You told me it was because it was you and not me. Just some sort of cliché I suppose. - Months later when I asked You said it was because you thought I had feelings for another. How foolish I was for letting you believe that For even a second.
I should have told you Your soul had sunk a hole in my chest that beated to the sound of your voice.
My heart sang a sick melody* - Two years have past Last week you told me you left Because you didn’t feel loved. You never saw the way my eyes traced up and down your body but always pulled back to your face
I remember what you did, Just like it was yesterday. - When I confessed You kissed every one of my fingertips, And said that you did so that everything I touched would feel loved.
Oh, how I wish those words were true.
My Captain O' Captain, I know not where the moon dips from the sky, Nor where she sunk in the sapphire sea.