on the last bus of a four transfer trek, watching as the mountain, covered in snow under all that blue, blue, sky, grows larger before me
but i’m not going home no, i’m going to drink and make merry with that wild sea captain i fell in love with as a younger man
and there’s not quite enough liquid courage thrumming through my veins and warming that darkest pit that lurks in my stomach to admit i never fell out of that love
though, if i lean a little closer on that cracked leather armchair, or if our hands brush when playing best two out of three with a board game, then no one else needs to know
and when that wild sea captain of mine declares himself a broken man, i will not argue, because that’s not my place
nor will i presume that this is a fairy tale and i can somehow love those jagged edges back together, or that this is something to be fixed at all
and because this is no fairy tale, since no greater force compels me, i can be a constant of my own free will, bringing with me baked goods and loud laughs over cheap beers
i can love that sea captain, not in spite of, but because of, those jagged edges