It’s the salt,
in the air,
your memory,
everywhere.
It’s on my tongue,
in my hair,
your memory,
everywhere.
It’s in my cells,
a part of every smell,
your memory,
everywhere.
It runs in my blood,
coats my lungs,
your memory,
everywhere.
–S.
It’s the salt,
in the air,
your memory,
everywhere.
It’s on my tongue,
in my hair,
your memory,
everywhere.
It’s in my cells,
a part of every smell,
your memory,
everywhere.
It runs in my blood,
coats my lungs,
your memory,
everywhere.
–S.
What’s it like to leave me behind?
If you knew then what you know now,
would you leave a second time?
What’s it like to leave me behind?
For me, it felt like it stopped time.
What’s it like to leave me behind?
I stayed yours, but you were no longer mine.
What’s it like to leave me behind?
…
Why do I do this to myself?
Nevermind.
–S.
Tic, Tac, Toe,
who would know,
that you meant no when you said go?
–S.
Grieving you.
Mourning you.
You are not dead.
Grieving you.
Mourning you.
We are dead.
Grieving you.
Mourning you.
You live in my head.
Grieving you.
Mourning you.
You love me in my head.
Grieving you.
Mourning you.
I’ll let you go when I’m dead.
–S.
I am seeing subaru foresters everywhere I go.
Is this the Universe’s way of letting me know?
Or am I just hyperaware?
Because you are no longer here.
–S.
Terrifying.
That’s the word that comes to mind when I think of telling someone my deepest insecurities. You’re basically giving someone the power to turn your heart into ground hamburger meat. Although terrifying, you feel such freedom having spoken those insecurities out loud – as if you have given them over to someone else to care of for a while.
You’re somehow lighter.
So, I tell you.
I tell you and I close my eyes really tight and no explosions go off around me. The world doesn’t collapse in on itself. Volcanoes don’t erupt. Streets don’t cave into sink holes.
Everything is still okay. You look at me the way you always have. Nothing seems to have changed.
I’ve lightened my load – unzipped the backpack on my back entitled ‘childhood traumas, bullshit I deem necessary to carry, and emotional baggage’ taken out a few items and handed them over to you.
Nothing seems to have changed, but really – everything has changed.
How could it not have changed?
Not only do you have the power to break my heart, but you have the power to break me.
But I trusted you with that power, A.
I really thought you would never use it. Never wield it against me.
But you do.
And if I could sum up in four words how it made me feel – I would say,
it
blew
me
away.
Into another universe. Completely obliterated me –
blew
me
the
fuck
away.
But if you wanted to know a more detailed explanation of how it devastated me –
I would tell you to imagine a glass castle.
A castle where everything is entirely made of glass.
Mirrors line the glass walls in every glass room.
The day you wielded my deepest insecurities against me like a sword,
all the glass and all the mirrors shattered at the same time.
I imagine you snapping your fingers once and the castle is in shards at my bloody feet.
–
It took me a long time to find the words to say how you hurt me, how you devastated me.
To this day, I still don’t understand why you picked up that sword.
Do you know that it is impossible to rebuild a glass castle from nothing but piles of glass shards?
You have no choice, but to build yourself back up, but stronger.
–
I don’t wish you great pain like the pain you have shown me. I simply wish you whatever the Universe feels you deserve in this life. Whether that is great pain or great joy – is none of my business.
–
You should at the very least prepare yourself for emotional sword-wielding monsters.
Because the Universe’s cousin – Karma, is a motherfucker.
–S.
You’ve been getting drunk and going out with friends to sing karaoke and dance at night clubs. In those moments – you really feel infinite. You can’t feel the heartbreak. It’s almost like nothing even happened. Almost like he’s still yours.
You’re coming home to him, only to find out that your bed is empty. I know what you’re thinking: One, what are you going to do with all of the things you know about him? All of the things in your head. Can you erase it? Can we file it away? Can we fax it to his new girlfriend? Two, it’s exhausting to keep reintroducing yourself to someone in hopes that they will fall for you.
What is he doing with all of the information that he has collected about you? You want to bet me money that he doesn’t even care about half of it.
See, the truth is that you are worth knowing. You are worth loving.
He probably never knew that your favorite color was purple, that it makes you really sad that you are allergic to lavender, that you still cry every time you watch the Notebook, and that you get jealous when your sister gets close to someone.
You were ready to commit to him. He was going to be your one, forever.
But how could he be your one if he didn’t appreciate these things about you? Your one will appreciate your quirks. They will adore all of the things that make you uniquely you. You have a story. No one on this planet could ever be you.
We are all a kaleidoscope of a million different things. Things we have picked up from school, books, music, television, movies, magazines, life, death, love, heartbreak, loss. All of those little pieces gorilla-glued together to make a collage – a you.
So stop thinking that you’re not worth it. Don’t let him ruin it for the real one. Don’t shut yourself off in the dark, and collect a string of one night stands. It’s not worth it.
You’re a lover. A romantic. Hold onto that. Don’t kill that.
More importantly, don’t allow someone who cared so little kill something that you care so much about. You have always believed in love.
Believe in love – again.
Always, again – always, one more time.
–S.
I paint your body from memory,
I hope you haven’t forgotten me.
I love your body in my mind,
I can still feel you touching me.
I love your body in my mind,
your words are still caressing me.
I try to touch your body with my heart,
but the universe blocks the energy.
I try to touch your body with my heart,
but I am protected from things not meant for me.
–S.
Years ago – in a letter to my dead grandmother – I wrote,
I disappear.
I disappeared.
I was disappearing.
And then he saw me.
You saw me anyway.
And in your own way – you were breathing life into me. Ultimately, in the end, I think breathing life into me, made you breath life out of yourself, and you had to let me go.
So, you let me go.
Usually when I think of the men in my past – I think of the pain that came from those unions, I think of them as having shined negative light on my life, dimming my own.
But you’re different. I remember the joy that came from our union. I think of the glow you brought into my life, a neon light at the end of the tunnel, a beacon in the night.
You held me.
I don’t mean with your physical touch.
I mean,
you
held
me.
Even when you let me go,
you
held
me.
You were holding me.
You
are
holding
me.
You were my friend before you ever became my lover.
You held me.
You communicated openly. You let me see your heart.
You held me.
I never had to question where you were or who you were with. Trust came easy.
You held me.
You understood me, like we were speaking in a language from a life before this one. Maybe your melancholy heart just understood my melancholy heart.
You held me.
I could be naked with you.
You held me.
Your eyes catching and locking with mine across the bar through the smoke, sweat, body heat, and liquor smell.
I felt you before I saw you, too.
You held me.
Your desire for me was always reflected in your eyes. Your hunger exciting me.
You held me.
You made me breakfast every morning that we woke up together.
You held me.
You took the time to read my heart.
You held me.
Your laughter was the soundtrack of my life for months.
You held me.
You would stay up with me even when you had to be up early in the morning for work.
You held me.
You were my first kiss. The first time you kissed me – you drunkenly made me ramen noodles. taking care of me even at the beginning. I was nervous and word vomiting all over the place because I knew that you were going to kiss me with your whiskey mouth. You told me to shut up and you kissed me. Being with you, was like a ramen noodle and whiskey kiss. Not understanding why two things, two people, who shouldn’t work together – work together. Shutting up, so we could shut the whole world out together.
You held me.
That night, when the stars were big and bright in Texas (not like the song, but literally) you led me through the dark in the woods, using steps you had memorized to a clearing – showing me your place to get away from the loud of the world and into the silence. Woods surrounding us, crickets chirping, breeze blowing, you held me.
Someone can hold you without ever using their hands.
They can hold you with a look,
a laugh,
a whisper,
their heart,
their mind,
their soul.
I hope that you’re not having to breath life into anyone.
I hope no one is having to breath life into you.
It’s hard work, I know.
I hope you’re simply breathing easy and living easy – and still loving – oh so hard.
I hope you were held.
If not by me, then someone after me.
I hope you’re held now.
I hope you’re holding someone.
You are still holding me, not in a can’t get over you type of way – because I am over you, but the way you loved me, the way you held me, is STILL, to this day, tiding me over until someone else can hold me.
I hope someone, someday can hold a candle to you.
You held me.
–S.
I was disappointed to find out that nothing had changed.
That within me there still lived this thing, something that always wanted to please you.
I hate that and that is the truth.
I can’t be your friend. I actually don’t want to be.
I would be – in an ideal universe where my head could un-think what it thought about you and erase all of the memories.
I would be – in an ideal universe where my heart could un-feel what it felt for you.
I would be – in an ideal universe where my soul didn’t feel like it was supposed to be connected to yours forever.
That is what I will miss the most – my friend.
For most, well all situations, I usually say that I wouldn’t change anything about the way the events played out because of the experience and the lessons that I learned along with it.
But, I would undo this one.
I want you to know that I would undo it all to ensure that we could always be friends.
As with most things, my mind added fresh paint over the pictures of us, the memories of us, the fantasies of us, the daydreams of us.
My daydreams and fantasies creating the perfect encounters.
However, they never actually existed.
At least not in the way that I painted them to be.
In another life, maybe.
In this life, never.
–S.