Words to Strangers

if you would hold me for one more moment
i would tell you present tense
that it is okay to be sad
even if you are loved and blanketed in common comforts
and normal happenings
even if you have a job and a place to live and
this person to go home to because sadness is pervasive despite your best
efforts to run away

i would tell you present tense that you are the one who has captivated my heart
for far longer than i could have imagined
i would think about the way my stomach drops at your name
the irrationality of it all and how like most irrational things
i thrive on the unsustainable beauty if it all

i would tell you that i am mad at you only in past tense
that the thought of your breath makes my anger dissipate
one glance and the depth of anger is gone i am level
i am clear headed and i make no sense
because looking at you is like looking at the culmination of my past and future
the embodiment of present tense and all the
beautiful complicated things that actually make my life worth it

if you would stay i would tell you these things
but there you go again
so good at leaving with no goodbyes