Self Expression #12

I wrote the following poem last winter about a good friend of mine who was going through a lot.  The two of us got close because we bonded over our similar struggles with mental and physical health.  While we don’t see each other much anymore, I still think about them a lot and will continue to love and support them through it all.

call me when you can

By: Paige Wilson

I miss you

and I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that since you’re still here

but I do

because for better or worse, we aren’t like we used to be

we used to walk through it together, our messy brains splayed out and 

tangled like our endlessly untied shoelaces, and we tripped but 

when we fell 

we fell together

maybe sometimes we even held each other down

beacuse misery loves company and we were each other's favorite kind

then somewhere along the way I got up without you

and I left you on the ground where the laces grasped your wrists and wound themselves around your waist and

you never moved. 

you couldn’t move.

at least I like to imagine it that way

It’s easier than imagining that you wanted to stay there

and I’m not sorry that I’m better

but I’m sorry that I left you there

I'm sorry that I left you on the bathroom floor.

I can almost hear the cold tile on the other side of the phone line

It’s begging you to stay

and you never could refuse such desperation

please

please, just call me when you can

I miss you