I only know you in the “fore”s and “after”s. When I trace a symmetry line down your chest and wonder what it would be like to open it up and crawl inside. You’re the only one who understands my mind. Even I don’t. But you taste my thoughts before they form, and you speak in a language only you and I know. I’m lost in your magic. I wish I could have, i mean, get you. I’m a book that only opens to your hands. You’re gentle as if I’m something precious or sacred. You leaf through the pages, feeling the ink under your fingertips. As you do, I see the lights in your eyes. Be it from a forest fire or the screen of a phone you really should have replaced by now, I see the lights. And you know me. More intimately than anything I could name. You know me. But all I have of you are the “fore”s and “after”s. The drunken nights and the hate sex and the crumbs to feed a dozen mouths. Every face of mine craves your palm on its cheek. I’d say I’m going to cry myself to sleep tonight, but you already know I can’t. I’ll go write another song about it. You’ll be there when I wake up, and I’ll pretend not a word of this ever passed my mouth or hand the same way you pretend not an inch of me has ever passed yours. My insides are a patchwork of the kid my parents didn’t raise and the hurricane you taught me I was. You are the eye, and I am the storm. And I’ll never need a damn thing else the way I need you.