(and each of us.)
When you look at the train tracks,
I hope you only see the places
you have yet to go.
Do not think for a second
that this world doesn’t need
your wanderlust.
We need your road rage,
your summertime unreliable car,
overheating on the interstate
before you reach your destination.
We need your overpacked suitcase
and the mix-tape you made in middle school.
Gift us your sun soaked skin
and hot breath panting
on the side of the road.
The breaking down
is the bit that makes every trip
more memorable in the end.
If you are here,
on the overpass at 4 P.M.,
it is not quite rush hour
and not yet the end.
I hope when you look down
you remember the first time
you watched Harry Potter.
Eating popcorn and wishing
to be on the Hogwarts express.
I hope you learned,
as I did,
to repeat your favorite line.
“Or worse, expelled.”
Love, this may be your worst day.
Still, it is only your worst day so far.
There are plenty more to come.
But even then and now,
you aren’t expelled
and haven’t even received
your acceptance letter
from Hogwarts.
You still haven’t been to Niagra falls.
You haven’t bought a hairless cat
or cried in the grocery store.
You haven’t returned enough
horrible meals at restaurants,
found your best clearance dress,
or recommended your favorite book
to a stranger who might need it…
like you do and did.
You haven’t felt what it’s like
to have your next worst day.
You haven’t done all of the things
you swore not to do.
I hope you do.
I hope you smoke
a whole pack of cigarettes.
I hope you drink
an entire bottle of wine
as long as it helps you find
just one more horrible hangover.
You have so many kitchen spiders
to scream about,
your tongue is still here
to be bitten and burnt,
so many worse
haircuts remain.
Your worst day
is still out there,
I hope you don’t leave
it waiting.
We need you to stay around
to complete every
New York Times wordsearch
only half-way before giving up
and leaving your number
with the barista who helps you find
that damn twelve across.
When he calls,
don’t let him hear your voicemail.
Don’t make him leave a message
you’ll never get to hear.
Done let your phone be disconnected.
We are all already waiting
for someone to pick up
and answer the other end
of our own worst pick up lines.
This world has enough fragments
of people.
We have enough hauntings
of lives unlived.
We need you,
on your worst day yet.
We need you,
in all the fullness of your life
that is still yet to be lived.
Look down at your shadow
on the top of that train.
Watch as the last car passes.
Nobody in this world
casts their darkness quite like yours.
Do each thing you’re afraid of.
This living,
I know it is the scariest one yet.
I promise,
we must all do
exactly that.
