On Your Mind

Close your eyes and let your mind wander freely. Where does it bring you? What memory surfaces or what dream is born? Who do you think about first and why that person over the 7 billion others in the world?

When you’re driving down dark highways, do you think of me? The long stretch of those open roads, do they remind you of our long conversations? With her in the passenger seat and the darkness that backgrounds the shadows of trees, do they mirror the secrets we’ve withheld? Do the headlights of oncoming traffic light your way back to thoughts of me?

When the sun comes up and you open your eyes to her lying beside you. Do you wonder how you could possibly still feel so alone and empty on a bed of bodies? Do your thoughts rise back to me and the warmth of my gold dusted hands along your morning skin? What about the soft glow of our day's first smile? Or do they make you think of the last sunset of our sweet days?

When you sit staring at a blank canvas before painting your thoughts, do you imagine the outlines of my name? When she speaks to you, do you think of the curves of my smile, the shapes of my speech or the taste of my silence? Do you write your words and wonder whether they would reach me? 

I think of you. I think of your humor that lingers at the pit of my stomach like the last fluttering butterfly I couldn’t laugh out. I think of the dizzying daze you leave me in like the spinning blues record on my stand. I think of the doors left shut even as the windows were opened and the wind of our words freely passed.

I think of you. I think of the tender times that tally longer than my breath as I breathe you in. I think of all the steps you’ve taken on your way to Jupiter while I stayed on Earth. I think of the demons you fought to land back on the steps of my stoop.

And then I think of the headlights illuminating the long road stretching home.