You Were The Sunshine Of My Lifetime

What Would You Trade The Pain For?

I don't remember much

(not as much as I should)

but I can't remember a time

I was ever not in love with you.

I love you so much it makes me sick

that even after all that

I would've gone home to you

and not have said anything.

Because they'd say

the war fucked me up,

or my mother fucked me up,

or maybe I was just fucked up,

when really the only thing

that ever fucked me up

was you

(in the best way possible).

I love you so much

it made them think

it made me sick,

but you were my favorite flavor of flu.

And I dare anyone to spend half as much time

as I have, and not find themselves

falling for you like I did.

I love you so much it makes me sick

to contemplate those other places

where you left me behind

on your way "home."

I thought we were home.

You told me you felt at home

because I was there,

no matter how different everything was

(how different I was).

I love you so much it makes me sick

to think about you going home

and not going back for me.

Even in this multiverse of multiverses,

in the infinite possibilities,

in the uncountable variations,

I cannot imagine a version of you

that would allow me to suffer

for seventy fucking years

while you married your dream gal

and retired to that heterosexual

socially acceptable

construct. (You'd marry her

and I wouldn't even be there

to be your Best Man.

You told me you wanted me there

(you told me we'd get married on the same day).

I must excuse my absence from

your virgin-white wedding;

I was too busy being taken apart,

piece by painful piece,

in the belly of the beast

you failed to slay,

and your Save the Date

didn't make it to fucking Siberia.)

Did you tell me all that

to ease your guilty conscience?

Because, what,

I was see-through

and you always knew?

But if I was that transparent,

you would know you were never a burden

on me. "Not to me,

not if it's you."

Was I so wreathed in red roses

and boyhood love

and the tender kisses on your temples

that you pitied me?

Wanted to pay me

for helping you?

Because that's bullshit.

If you wanted to repay me

for something I did of my own volition,

because I'm just fucked up enough

to be saved by my love for you,

you would help me.

By going back,

but not with me,

but not for me,

you left me there—

not even to die,

you know better

than to think I died

you left me there to be turned inside-out.

But, I guess,

you saved me the first time, right?

So I'll make do with the secret kiss

that one winter you came closer to death

than usual. I'll make do

with the kiss I hallucinated

you returned when you saved me.

I guess I'll make fucking do

so you can look at her

and not tell her about the past decade

and finally say "I do."

I'll make fucking do.

You made my grave;

all there is left

is to lie in it

and let you bury me

in the past—perfect—

and the future never to come.

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