alone

count the breaths
the steps between the lost things
and what tomorrow brings

I walked away too fast
I broke
you didn't see
my heart was on the outside
losing you was swallowing me

the promise kept
the poets creed lies
littering now and rotting with
broken, golden forgotten things
beneath the oldest tree

I'm learning to walk again
like the man I never got to be
I need a moment to let you see
I wanted the best for you
it wasn't me

on my stage
I played the nights away
and you were sleeping in a safer
way
I was stumbling with a prayer
on my lips
I wish that I'd begged harder
to have a little bit
of everything I missed

all the things I put away
all the words I didn't say
the street, the house, the music box
the pen that loosed my thought to songs

so when you leave
smile through your melancholy
and as you drive by the river
count the blackbirds
on your way home
alone