You've both read through dozens
of midnight thoughts poured into poems
that hardly even apply to your lives,
and maybe once or twice a few
that I've written about you.

But there's never been one to you,
and honestly there should.
Poets better than myself
should be writing about the both of you.

Because at the end of the day
(you're another day older, and)
you're the ones
who have stayed with me
through every single one
of my conscious, deliberate mistakes
and also the ones
that I never meant to make—
and every moment when
the only thing I've been was a burden,
you've put up with me;
you've never loved me less
(though there were times you really should have)
and I couldn't be more grateful for that.

Everybody told me that I needed to be careful—
that people can be fake,
and best friends in high school
never really means forever.
But I know that even if
a time comes when we can't be as close as right now,
you'll both remain parts of me
that will stay my entire life;
collections of stories in memory books
that I'll keep on the coffee table of my mind,
right between a picture of how we looked the night of senior prom
and the invitations to both of your weddings.

I couldn't have ever in a million years
asked for more amazing best friends—
that feel a lot more like sisters most of the time
and are more important than
any other relationship with anyone
I'll ever have in my entire life.

And I know that I'm more
than a little bit hard to love
a lot of the time
and that I should say this way more often,
but I love you both so much more
that I could ever convey with words in a poem.
(But, as you both know,
that's the only way I know how to express things.
So until a better way comes along,
this is my placeholding "I love you"
for forever and beyond.)