the same old couch that's been
here forever.
The people blur on TV
a marathon of dirty faces
stare back at me
nothing invades the house
and swallows me up
now I know how it feels to be YOU.
My mind drifts back to days past,
when your unwelcomed shadow
still graced my walls.
You stared at the wall
a conversation of the deaf
you smiled at the paint
and I wondered where you went
You didn't look at me
when you said
many before have done this
it shouldn't be that hard.
was that it?
the recycled lie you tell
to get your way?
You didn't hear what I said
you just smiled.
God how I hate that smile.
I turned the other way,
away from you,
I turned my back on everything,
on you and that smile.
I pretended I didn't hear you,
like you pretended you cared.
If this were a movie,
the broken heart ballad
would have been in full swing
as I watched your shadow leave
and I listened to the sound
of your engine leaving my street
and I knew that when you reached your house,
in seventeen and a half minutes,
you would call me
while your car still ran in the driveway.
I knew it,
I swear I did.
but I didn't know
how seventeen and a half minutes could
stretch out over several days, weeks,
months.
or why my phone never rang.
