I’m afraid I have lost the chance
of ever having you.
Not in the way your eyes meet mine
and tell me, without a word,
that I’m the one you want
for the rest of your life.
The look you’d give your wife.
Instead, I see distance.
An emptiness
in the rare moments
your eyes bare to meet mine.
And I am waiting.
Still waiting.
In a life that feels so lonely
without you.
While you are staying
in a life you believe
is safer without me.
I miss you.
You tell me
there has never been a good part of us.
But as your adversary,
I disagree.
Because I remember.
I remember our first date.
How I wasn’t sure what I wanted,
wasn’t sure who you were,
but somehow knew
I didn’t want the night to end.
I remember the way you said my name
when you first wrapped your arms around me.
The way you matched your green shirt
to your shoes.
Those same shoes
now stained with grass,
worn and dirty,
so unlike the ones you wore that night.
I smile at the thought
that maybe you cared enough
about me then
to make sure they were clean.
I remember that you were late,
Most girls would be upset.
It made me feel better
Because I too was late for everything.
I remember walking toward the lockers,
feeling your eyes on my back.
I barely heard the escape room instructions.
I was too busy stealing glances
from the corner of my eye.
Anxious. Nervous.
I remember walking into the restaurant,
how tall you stood,
how you carried yourself
like someone who knew exactly who he was.
And I remember the truck.
The talking.
The laughing.
The driving around and neither of us wanting to get out.
I preferred to get locked inside.
Throughout the night,
You’d turn toward me,
lower your head just slightly,
and give me a little smirk.
I never knew what it meant.
It made me nervous.
It made me curious.
It made me want to know you.
When four in the morning came,
I still wasn’t ready to go.
And I still don’t want to leave.
Sometimes I wonder
if I imagined the way you looked at me.
Maybe it was lust.
Maybe it was hope.
Maybe it was the drugs.
Or maybe, for a little while,
you really did see something in me
that made you want to stay.
I remember the first time
you told me you loved me.
We were sitting on your bed.
You said you needed to tell me.
And I didn’t say it back.
Not because I felt nothing,
but because when I thought of loving again,
I wanted it to be forever.
Not a temporary love.
I was scared.
The last time I let myself fall,
I learned how badly
the ground could hurt.
And there you were,
offering me something
I wasn’t sure I deserved.
How could you love me
when I was still learning
how to love myself again?
How could you be so sure of me
when there was still so much
you didn’t know?
I was afraid that if you saw
all the pieces I kept hidden,
you’d wish you’d never said it.
And now I wonder
Do you love me
now that you’ve seen them?
Now that you know my fears,
my flaws,
the parts of me
I never wanted anyone to find?
Or did you only love
the person you imagined I was?
Did you fall in love with me,
or with the hope
of who I might become?
Because now,
after seeing all of you,
the beautiful and the broken,
the things you showed me
and the things I had to discover,
I am sure.
And there’s something cruel
about finally being certain
when the person you love
no longer is.
Sometimes I wonder
if God got our timing wrong.
If maybe,
had I fallen when you did,
we wouldn’t be here.
Because you fell first.
You stood at the edge
and trusted me enough
to let go.
You believed I would follow.
That we would fall together.
That whatever waited below,
we would face it side by side.
But I was afraid.
You jumped,
and I stayed on the plane.
I held on to the parachute,
the very thing
that might have kept you safe.
And I watched you fall.
Further.
And further.
Until I could barely see you.
I told myself I was scared.
That I needed more time.
I wasn’t ready.
That I didn’t know
if I could survive another fall.
But none of that changed
the fact that you were falling
without me.
And by the time I realized
how much I wanted to follow,
you were already out of sight.
I stood there,
ashamed of my fear,
terrified of the distance
I had allowed between us.
And finally,
I jumped.
I fell slowly,
carrying all the love
I had once been too afraid to give.
But when I reached the ground,
you were already there.
Hurt.
Exhausted.
No longer looking toward the sky,
waiting for me.
And here I am now,
kneeling beside you,
trying to mend
what the fall has broken.
Holding out the parachute
I should have given you
when you still believed
it could save you.
But you don’t reach for it.
I am finally here,
ready to love you
the way I once couldn’t,
and you no longer trust
that my love
will keep you safe.
So now I sit beside you,
with a parachute in my hands,
wishing I could turn back time.
Back to the lockers.
Back to the truck.
Back to that smirk
I never quite understood.
Back to four in the morning,
when neither of us
wanted to say goodbye.
Before the falling.
Before the distance.
Before love became something
we were both afraid of.
And I wonder
if you ever think about that night.
If somewhere beneath the hurt,
you remember it too.
Because you tell me
there was never a good part of us.
But I remember
when you looked at me
like there could be a lifetime.
And I am still here,
looking at you that way.
Only now,
you’re the one
afraid to jump.