don't leave,
and don't you dare
say goodbye.

i am not crying
because you will be gone -
or, i'm trying to pretend
that that isn't the case.

i am crying
because you're like my safety blanket,
and my inspiration,
and you were once my best friend
i am crying
because i need you,
even if you don't need me.

i need things to stay the same,
and you disappearing,
moving to bigger cities
and starting a new life
is not the same.

i want to hear your laugh,
obnoxiously loud over things
that are never quite as funny
as your reaction
i need to know that you are somewhere,
close by,
thinking and living and breathing
the same way i am
and i need to know
that when the moon shines its beams
across us at night,
and i am looking at the stars,
that perhaps we are thinking the same thought
just in different visions;
relative, like the way
every person
perceives things differently.

i do not want to
forget
you, or anything you've made me feel
although i do know it's time to
move on.
but i must admit,
when i am in class,
and your name somehow stumbles its way
to the front of my brain,
it will hurt that much more -
like a sudden shock
caused by an imbalance of electrical charges.

i do not want you to leave,
and thinking about it now hurts too much.
i guess i knew,
always,
that this was coming
but i never realized it would come
quite so suddenly,
or quite so soon.