Like a tourist

like a tourist wandering around a forgotten town, you knocked at my door and made yourself at home. that bright blue house by the corner, that's always an eyesore, is a wonder to you. it stands out like a flower among dry leaves, you say. but it's just a house...and it's so bright...

if you spend too many days here you'll learn to see that the hill is too hilly and it's never a breeze to walk in this breeze. but you, with your turtleneck and enthusiasm, don't fall prey to the slippery slope of mundanity. it isn't mundane to you, after all. the dirty laundry isn't a spectacle to you. but that faded white shirt is. you instantly know that it's been worn too many times and that it has collected too many stories. does every story have an ending, I wonder...

bills stacked on top of each other cover every wall around here. call an electrician, call a plumber, call for help. everything is broken here. but you see the base still holding on where the towners see ruins. you see restorative beauty and I see miracles in the form of people...

a little lost, a little too little, just a young girl waiting for wanderers to find their way back home. but wanderers don't plant roots like homebodies do, you taught me that. and that's okay, you showed me that. my paths have become tangled with those of many. arrivals I never expected, departures I never saw coming... and the only lesson I've learnt from that is that some people stay, and the universe lets them. and it's people like you...

I don't know how to deal with loss. you said you don't either. so we lament about life and pray for a longer one. sip coffee like it'll drown out the voice inside us that screams of insecurities.

time has given me a bruised memory and nimble feet that run away at the sight of any shards of glass. I am scared to forget this moment, forget you, forget me with you...

we're still whole as individuals; not inseparable either. but sometimes I catch myself wondering, what I would do without you and I find myself back at the blue house…