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She tilts her head back toward me "That was on the list," she says
"Your mom’s list?"
"Yeah ‘Does he inspire you?’ is one of the questions"
"Do I inspire you?"
"Every single day," she whispers
I kiss her forehead "Well, like I said, you inspiredbefore then, but that night at dinner so just clicked inside ht with the world I had assu apart would help you focus on her, but ere both wrong I knew that the only way either of us could have been truly happy is if ere together I wanted you to wait for me I wanted you to wait forsoht at the slam when I saw you walk in, I couldn’t stopthat piece so you would hear it I knerong, but I wanted you to kno ht about you How much I really did love you"
She rolls over and scowls at me "What do you mean when you saalk in? You said you didn’t knoas there until you saw"I lied"
the lake
AS SOON AS I step up to the h the doors and heads straight for a booth, never once looking up at the stage My heart rate speeds up and beads of sweat form on my forehead, so I wipe them aith the palm of ht or the onslaught of nerves that have just overcoh the door I can’t perform this poem now Not with her here Why is she here? She said she wasn’t coht
I take a step away frohts Should I do it anyway? If I do it, she’ll know exactly how I feel about her That could be good Maybe if I go ahead and do it I could gauge her reaction and know if asking her to wait forto do I want her to wait for me I want her to wait foranyone besides me to love her She needs to kno I feel about her before I’m too late
I shake the tension out of my shoulders I step up to the microphone, brush awaybut the truth
I used to love the ocean
Everything about her
Her coral reefs, her whitecaps, her roaring waves, the
rocks they lap, her pirate legends and mermaid tails,
Treasures lost and treasures held
And ALL
Of her fish
In the sea
Yes, I used to love the ocean,
Everything about her
The way she would sing me to sleep as I lay in my bed
then wake me with a force
That I soon ca eyes,
I’d drain her dry
If I cared enough to
I used to love the ocean,
Everything about her
Her coral reefs, her whitecaps, her roaring waves, the
rocks they lap, her pirate legends and mermaid tails,
treasures lost and treasures held
And ALL
Of her fish
In the sea
Well, if you’ve ever tried navigating your sailboat
through her stormy seas, you would realize that
her whitecaps are your ene ashore when your leg gets a craers that’s
weighing you down, and her roaring waves are
knocking the wind out of you, filling your lungs with