Where did you come from?
When I needed someone most
Suddenly you
Appeared.

I never expected to feel
Such excitement and joy
For our simple pleasures
And shared adventures.

I've never met someone else
Who finds solace in nature the way you do.
And it's not just talk.

You are not what they say.

So close
In such a short span of time.
I wondered
What I was getting myself into.

Hasn't been very long
But the few memories
Pulse behind and between us
Our dreamworld brings me back to life.

All the bright flames
In my memory
No longer satisfy.

I burn and ache
With the feeling
That those probably weren't real.

I doubt I can find someone
Whole enough to match me.

I want intellect
I want grace
I want beauty
I want sensitivity
But most of all
I want a love that's real.

The absence of you is more painful
Than anyone's absence
Because in truth
You don't exist yet.

I gasp and sob
And wish you'd just appear
And help me focus on something
Other than my loneliness.

I've met so many people
In my life already.
Most I have forgotten,
Lost even their names.

Others are silhouettes,
With the moving outlines
Of their bodies revealing
Most of what I need to know.

A few huddle under the
Lamplight with me,
Crowding each other out,
The closer ones there by chance.

I know these people well
But they're the kind that
Will scatter to the next light
As their attention or agenda wavers.

One or two are less ephemeral,
Yet seeing one side of each,
I know the others must be
Always in shadow.

Ultimately the light
Shines only on me
But I wonder if it's
Simply by choice.

I am the same way
With others, leading
Them along and yet not
Letting them in.

I am comfortable here
For these aren't the only
People with whom
I've shared light.

There're others whose lights
Burn in different colors
And spray sparks, drawing
My attention again.

I cling to my lamppost
Lean out into the dark
For a view of those gliding
Rapidly into the distance.

I still sigh at the beautiful lights
Months after I left your halo
Of movement and words and thoughts
And the beauty of your fierce intelligence.

When speaking
Feels as free as
Dancing
Running
Screaming
I know that I've been quiet
For far too long.

What stops me from running off into the woods and losing myself?
Certainly not the tedium of day to day life
Or the difficulty of finding someone to relate to
Or the constant impatience I feel to get going!
And make the world better for people like me...

Those people who make decisions based on who they will help
Not on how much fun they will have
And who have a hope and a dream and a goal...
So distant it brings them to religion
Because religion relies on a god as distant as their dreams

And on to religion and the role it plays
In the decisions I make and those goals of mine
I can't say that I'm religious
But I like to believe that the world
Doesn't just consist of what science sees...

So that's why my kind of science
The kind that my hopes bend me towards
Conservation, Ecology, Animal Science...
They require a certain kind of person
Who is scientific and yet thinks outside the box
And grasps the connection between instinct and fact...

That brings me back to the classroom
Where I sit for so long every day
My instincts tell me I need to learn more
To prepare for something great in my future
While fact keeps me planted in place...

I reject all the lives around me
Don't want things, I want nature!
And yet it all seems abstract
When I look at it straight:
Few people know what I'm feeling

At least I can say I know what I want
It's just a matter of getting it
And along the way making sure
There's no chance of my forgetting it
Two years left of high school...

Two years till I get to go away
And seek out the things that I dream of
Two years is far ahead
I think I'll read a book today
And for now right here is where I'll stay.

I see you everyday
But, oh, the fullness of your soul
After all the hardships
That have made you more whole...

You're a marvel to me,
In all your sweet sincerity.
Each moment to you seems
Like another opportunity.

Through something more profound
Than simple conversation,
We've lived our own lives
And developed a connection.

I look to you for strength
Just a touch or a smile
And in our parallel worlds
Everything's right for a while.

You believe in what you do
And so do I.
I didn't realize until now
How much you really try.

I admire and respect you
Just seeing the way you exist
Fills me up with joy
Just to know you.

I spin in circles
I sketch them on a page
I think
And run and walk
In circles.

The only kind of shape
I really want to be
Is a spiral.

A spiral is like a circle
But every time it goes around
It picks up new experiences
And gets larger or smaller
Depending on whether
You start on the inside or out.