In the simplest way
I am afraid of when you leave.
It's not for missing you,
Not just.
I hardly see you as it is.
It's not even
That I'm scared you will forget me,
Although I am.
It's not only
That I am afraid I'll not get to see your face
And marvel at your eyes
And hear your voice
For so very long.
It is even simpler than that.
I am afraid that you are leaving
Because for that stretch of time
There will be no possibility for any of it.
Not the slightest.
No chance, at all,
That I will pass you on the street
Or hear your laugh in a crowded room
Or have a late night talk with you on the benches by the lake.
Gone: No chance.
And you simply don't know-
Hell, I don't even fully know-
Just how much of my life is sweetened
By that little chance:
That, any moment,
You could step into it
Like you do
With your lightbulb smile
And something tender to say as if it's no great kindness at all,
And make it all worth something.